Fallen World Chronicles
by Don Orbit
Summary: The end of YGGDRASIL marked the end of an era of video game history, but also the beginning of great changes on different worlds as the beings from the game are scattered across the multiverse. However what kind of changes they will bring is all up to them. These are stories of less fortunate fates of worlds caused by this event Collection of OC-centric oneshots, M for dark themes
1. Introduction

_**The Fallen World Chronicles**_

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_Terminology_

_Fallen World: World or universe, that had their civilization/s or environment/s destroyed by individuals from YGGDRASIL (players, NPCs and/or monsters)._

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**Note: The background of this series of oneshots is to show what happens when a world doesn't simply get conquered by a YGGDRASIL player, but actually destroyed as it is the easiest yet less efficient way to conquer a world. When an individual gets transported into another world through the means of YGGDRASIL things can go down three paths.  
**

**First is when said person makes a positive change for the world like actually bringing progress and prosperity to the people and thus leaves a good impression of themselves in history. Such people would be hailed as heroes or legends or even gods like we see it for the 6 Great Gods of the Slane Theocracy. Don't get me wrong, I absolutetly despise that xenophobic world picture of them, that seems to picture mankind as the rightful rulers of all creation, but they probably did do some good for mankind when they are hailed as gods by them like protecting them from all those rather aggressive demihuman tribes that are still roaming their territory.  
**

**Second is when they don't make a change on that world. If a world has already magic and mythical beings or has a power scaling beyond that of Level 100 YGGDRASIL players, those people are probably not going to change much or not even appear in historical records. That of course can also happen when these beings for examply chose a solitary lifestyle away from civilization, when all their traces are erased like through the ruin of a civilization they helped to raise or when said individuals simply die before having the chance to be remembered for anything.  
**

**This is something that can happen very likely on any world asit depends on all kinds of factors like geography, location during the transition, local fauna and flora, local sentient beings, demographic distribution, magical and technological advancement and the list goes on and on. For example a world with residents, that could just crush an YGGDRASIL player without much effort would basically only remember them as some sort of strange being at best and those beings would probably fade from the memory.**

**The third way is when these people would commit all sorts of atrocities such as enslavement, murder, rape, genocide and so on for inmorale reasons like suddenly receiving the bodies and powers of their game avatars or in the case of NPCs and monsters suddenly becoming real and acting according to their lore and personality. ****Basically if Ainz was to suddenly die alongside all of Nazarick by the time shortly after the battle of Katze Plains, he and all his followers would only be remembered by the people as some sort of monsters with him at the top as the monster, that killed thousands with a single spell and all his positive achievements would be denied or not recognized by most of the people as the majority of the Re-Estize Kingdom wouldn't hail a monster friendly that wiped out their army and their champion and national hero Gazef Stronoff and the Slane Theocracy already has something against anything that isn't human, so it is very likely that like with the tales of the 13 Heroes that the tales will be bent in favor of humanoid races.**

**Another example would be when individuals from YGGRASIL destroy entire landscapes, kill many people, enslaves locals or brings down entire countries. Such individuals would be remembered as monsters even if they were human. Of course, this would also depend on the individuals and what they would do afterwards. Ainz would not only be remembered as a coldblooded monster as he rose his kingdom to power and prosperity. By his people he'd be hailed more as a great king though NPCs could easily warp that view into that of a god.**

**Making history is of course never truly objectively made. It depends on the people that write it down and usually such people picture themselves as just and their enemies as the evil ones of the story.**

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**For this series I will put down some guidelines or rules if you will for the coming chapters.**

**1\. I will not guarantee to include franchises on the suggestion of the readers. If you want make suggestions, you are more than welcome to do that. However, ****I can't tell if I would make a chapter for that or not. It's possible, but I can't promise you anything.**

**2\. I will not include franchises that I have not watched, read or played completely or don't know anything about at all.**

**For example, High School DxD. The first episode was enough already to chase me off and never come back, because it simply would have been too awkward for me to watch it. By the way the same also goes for Aesthetica of a Rogue Hero and Testament of Sister New Devil. One episode and I was done with them. I never did any research on those shows afterwards. Not even to figure out why they were popular in the first place.**

**Another case would be that I never watched My Hero Academia or Demon Slayer, which both have quite the hype going on, yet I don't really plan to watch them any time soon. I can't really explain it but even when recommended I just don't feel like watching them.  
So if someone happens to suggest them, my hands are tied because I simply didn't watch them. Then again I doubt anyone of you would want those series in a collection like this one.**

**A last example for this rule, Gears of War. I have never played a single game of the Gears series. Never have and probably never will, because I'm really, REALLY bad in first person shooters and shooter games in general. The same goes for Metal Gear Solid, Resident Evil or Halo. I never even touched those games and thus I know only very little about them.**

**3\. I will not include franchises that powerwise are too powerful to receive actual damage by such individuals. The red thread that will go through all those stories is that somehow there will be brought destruction to something of a large scale, thus the name Fallen World Chronicles. It would literally make no sense to name the collection like that if I included a franchise or multiple one in this series, that cannot be harmed by such individuals.**

**For example, I cannot destroy Death March with such individuals since the sheer impossibility to kill Satou unless you have a suitable world item, cheat code or ability to completely overwrite his abilities, including his ability to resurrect even when killed, which alone is already virtually impossible. So since those abilities are so far are all nonexistent in the Overlord franchise and I personally doubt that they will be added, that series won't be here. I get he's a game developer, but he didn't create the world he was sent to, so those admin level powers are not even justified by that.**

**Another example, I cannot destroy One Punch Man since even if a player of the same level as Momonga would try [Grasp Heart] on Saitama, it is most likely that they would break their own hand in attempt to crush his heart. It would be literally like Jade trying to wake up Kongou-sensei in Houseki no Kuni.  
Note here, that I only brought up One Punch Man, because I lacked examples.**

**If a franchise, however, is powerwise usually not stronger, yet features stronger characters like for example One Piece before the timeskip when individuals like Whitebeard had been more of a rarity and not basically the norm, they could be featured.**

**4\. ****None of the OCs you'll see from YGGDRASIL here will have multiple chapters. This is a oneshot collection for a reason and they don't get a second chapter in this collection. So I'll try my best to construct a fitting conclusion for each chapter respectively. **

**If you want to see more chapters of one scenario or another constellation of player(s), NPC(s) and/or monster(s) to wreck a world in an actual story, you'll have to write it yourself or convince someone else to do it for you. You may as well use this as inspiration to write your own stories. And if you just want a oneshot idea of yours featured in this series, you are always welcome to do so, but I can't promise anything.**

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**Also a last note at the end, this series is not purely composed out of simple hate fanfictions just because I don't like certain franchises or because I like dark stories (which I don't) or because I think that Overlord is superior to all other universes. **

**It is to show that there are simply some worlds that powerwise are too weak to withstand the power of a single person or monster from YGGDRASIL, when that individual has a more destructive and evil nature or when the world itself pushes such people so far that they resort to such actions.**

**Not one of these scenarios is either meant as an offense against fans of the featured franchises nor does it mean that I essentially have to dislike every featured franchise without exception. They simply got thrown into the mix, while I was looking through everything I have watched, read and played over the years and haven't used for a story already... **

**Maybe I should clean up for once and throw away all those old games I can't play anymore... BUT THAT'S BESIDE THE POINT HERE!  
**

**I apologize right away for the case that the oneshots should offend you, because it features a franchise that you like, kills a character that you like or any other reason. Nothing of this is meant as an insult to neither the makers or the fanbases.**

**With that I hope you will enjoy the following chapters.**

**Disclaimer: I own absolutely none of the featured franchises. All rights belong to their respective owners and them alone.**


	2. Chapter I: Beneath the Skin

Chapter I: Beneath The Skin (Grimoire of Zero)

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It was a warm summer day as a very unlikely duo made its way over the border of the kingdom on a long dirt road that cut its way through the grasslands around it.

One was a tall beastfallen, looking like a humanoid white tiger with snow white fur with light gray stripes, a cat-like nose and ears on his head and green eyes with slit pupils. He wore armor and leather as well as a cloak that was drapped over his broad shoulders. That plus the large greatsword that easily was the same height as himself made him look rather experienced in battle. With his appearance alone he probably made most others flee the moment they saw him.

The second one was as different from their companion as possible. A petite girl which looked like in her early teenage years with long white hair reaching past her hips and violet eyes. She wore an open black coat with purple accents and big, white cuffs along with a white undershirt that shows her midsection, black shorts with a small, white belt, pink stockings that go up to the middle of her thighs, and thick, knee-high brown boots.

This was the duo of the witch Zero and her loyal companion Mercenary.

The two of them had left the capital of kingdom behind them a few days ago after a more or less wacky chase after the Grimoire of Zero, a book written by Zero herself to simplify the concepts of magic for the reader and making it therefore possible for anyone to learn magic.

Zero herself came from an underground community of mages that lived isolated from the rest of the world to study sorcery in peace and quiet. Their entire lifestyle and therefore their lives were dedicated to this purpose alone. Zero as the young girl she was had always been curious and was born with a great intellect, allowing her to learn the ways of sorcery faster and more efficiently than any other of her relatives.

And as she studied sorcery, she wrote down more simplified ways to cast spells. Ones that required no demon to be summoned and still performed magical tasks. She was truly a genius in her field. Sorcery and magic were two different things. Sorcery summoned demons to do the bidding of their summoner, but magic was something completely new to the world. They were simplier, safer and even more powerful than the sorcery. As such it was Zero herself, who invented magic.

The reason why she wrote this book was born from a noble cause. Sorcerers could cast sorcery, but they usually didn't take many students to spread it across the common people. Also summoning a demon required a sacrifice that would be enough to please the demon. From what she heard from her time as a child, there was only a relatively small number of sorcerers in the outside world due to that fact. She had always been curious about the outside world. How could she not when she herself was born in a hole in the ground and lived in the Underground ever since as she had only seen the sun from holes to the surface where the community grew plants?

The reason why she wrote her grimoire was to help the people outside. Growing up in a community of witches and sorcerers was great, because they could supply themselves very well on their own thanks to magic. However, Zero heard from others how things were on the surface where people lived in medieval times and thus had not the most easy lives at some times. Droughts, forest fires, Floods and other natural disasters could cause a domino effect that would lead to great suffering for many people for example due to crops being destroyed or epidemics spreading.

However, her relative Thirteen knew of the nature of mankind. Most disasters were not born from nature alone, but rather were manmade. And so he began to make a plan to create a world for Zero. A world without any dangers and for her to rule over. He stole the book and slaughtered the entire community of underground mages, his own Family without a shred of remorse. That was completely unknown to Zero at that time as Thirteen pretended to have been the only survivor next to her.

When Zero noticed her book being stolen, Thirteen left the underground to search for it. He told her to stay home and not to come to the surface. That way he easily smuggled the book outside and began the next step. While never truly seen by any, he gathered followers around him and taught him the ways of magic with the help of the Grimoire. In every community there were people living in desperate situations and the temptation to make the tool of magic their own was very powerful. Easily swayed by this, the Sorcerers of Zero gathered together under Thirteen, who only was referred to as "The Master" or "Him". At some point after leaving the Grimoire with the organization he had created so they could spread the ways of magic further, he became the court magician of the king.

With this position of power, Thirteen ordered a witch hunt as the Sorcerers of Zero began to become more reckless in their actions, because magic had become for some only a tool to do whatever they wanted. This of course made them the enemies of the kingdom and the people saw them from then on as a bunch of terrorists. The unjust execution of the witch Sorena, which had not been part of Thirteen's plan, but it helped him nonetheless, then finally made the barrel overflow as the sorcerers truly became more extreme. This all would have gone done with both sides destroying one another and leaving no one to oppose Thirteen or his sister Zero.

Eventually however Zero ventured out to find the book and met Mercenary, which she promised to turn back into a human if he helped her. Beastfallen originally were humans that witches ahd created as very powerful warriors by infusing the souls of animals in them, turning them into humanoid animals. However, this power came with a prize as they could sometimes not suppress their own urges and devoured humans around them in a feeding frenzy. Mercenary however was a beastfallen since birth as he was born to two normal human parents. Still people hunted him not only because of the fear people had before a beastfallen's frenzy as the heads of beastfallen were powerful sacrifices to summon demons, which made both humans and witches his sworn enemies.

Eventually they managed to stop Thirteen and his plan by creating a massive magic circle around the kingdom and taking away the ability of every sorcerer and witch to cast magic. Thirteen was executed in front of the people, though it was only staged by Zero and Mercenary as he escaped the royal capital through a secret underground tunnel.

The capital founded an academy of magic to regulate the usage of magic and to prevent another civil war.

But with all that done, why were the two still travelling like this together?

The spell Zero had used had slightly backfired as her powers were greatly exhausted, making her unable to return mercenary to his human form. Also Zero was sure that through the time the Grimoire was on the surface, some mages may have ventured outside the kingdom to spread their knowledge beyond the borders. Zero's new goal was it to stop the misuse of magic. And since she still had to turn Mercenary into a human, the tiger beastfallen had no choice but to tag along. Well, that and the two of them had become good friends over the course of their journey together.

It was said that the Grimoire of Zero had the power to destroy the world so they may as well traveled together and saved mankind from itself again.

The path the duo kept walking down lead through a small forest at the edge of the kingdom. It was all quite and peaceful. Safe for the wind that made the leaves in the trees above rustle, no sound disturbed the silence of the forest. Then their noses got suddenly assaulted by the stench of death.

"What the hell is that?" Mercenary grumbled as he had to resist the urge to sniff out the direction the stench came from, which would only have made it worse for him. As a beastman his nose was far more sensitive than that of a human or a witch, but at least he was not Holdem, who probably would have fainted from this.

"Maybe something died now far from here." Zero said, covering her nose and mouth with one arm. They continued to walk further, when suddenly they saw how a black rat scurried between the branches of a bush at the side of the road. The stench was now almost unbearable even for Zero as Mercenary had wrapped piece of cloth round the faces of both of them. Behind the bush, the humming of insects flying around in excitement or anger could be heard. The source of the stench made the two recoil slightly.

The stench came from the carcass of a deer. It fur had begun to fall out on patches already. The skin seemed to be simply draped over the skeleton, as the number of ribs were clearly visible and one of the legs already had holes that showed naked, white bones. The body must have been laying there for some time already to decay to this state. Some critters like rats and roaches scurried away at the appearance of the large tiger beastman, while snails and pillbugs didn't mind him. They apparently had been eating the rotting flesh until now.

"Just a dead deer." Mercenary sighed as he lifted an arm to his face to cover his already sensitive nose even through the piece of cloth. Dismissing the fact that the dead animal laid there, he turned to Zero. "Come. If we stay here any longer, I'll probably lose my appetite." Mercenary grumbled as he and Zero walked further into the forest. Zero eyed the bush, which hid the carcass from onlookers on the road, before following her companion.

What both of them were not aware off, was that the deer was not the only corpse in this forest as in a sink just deeper in the forest, further away from the treeline the bodies of boars, deers, wolves and other creatures were also laying around the entire forest. Not a single bird sung as the trees were empty. It was as if even the Bugs had gone into hiding from something.

On that day, the forest was silent.

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_Half an hour later_

The unlikely duo of Mercenary and Zero kept walking through the small forest, following the dirt path. If none of them could come up with something to talk about it would be useless to try. There was not much to talk about anyway. Well, there was one thing they could always talk about.

Zero's lack of common knowledge. Due to her growing up isolated from the rest of the world, she had no idea how society worked and morales and norms were as much of foreign words for her as were magical formula for Mercenary. The tiger beastfallen really didn't need to be reminded by her undressing in that clothes shop all the sudden. Or when they first came into a town with their companion Albus and Zero told the guards that she and Albus were Mercenary's sex slaves. That was really awkward enough for a lifetime. Especially after finding out that Albus was actually a girl. Who would have thought?

Because of that Mercenary would do the talking when they would arrive in settlements. That was what he thought as he could see the bright light at the end of the path, leading out of the forest.

When they finally reached the end of the forest, they came face to face with a village surrounded by grasslands a few hundred meters away on the dirt road. It seemed almost to be a small town as the buildings were actually made of bricks instead of just wood and simple stone. In the middle of it the two travelers could make out the clock tower of a church.

Without enough supplies and rest, they wouldn't get much further. That was no secret to Mercenary and Zero. Also they really deserved a break after everything they had been through.

In the village it was surprisingly quiet. Not a single person was outside and it looked like it had been abandoned quite some time ago in a hurry. On the ground laid broken shards of glass and clay from bottles and jars. Doors creaked loudly with the wind making them swing back and forth, leading into slightly ruined houses.

"Looks like a battle took place here." Zero commented as she looked around the houses. She was a bit miffed since she had actually expected to sleep somewhere comfortable after eat something warm and tasty. Well Mercenary was a good cook and she'd always prefer his food over anything, but she couldn't say she wouldn't enjoy good food when it came from somewhere else. But now was not the time to think about something to eat or a nice and cushy bed.

"Yet there isn't a single mark of a sword or anything. I don't think that this is the work of bandits. Maybe it was sorcerers like back then." Mercenary said as he suddenly saw something on the dirt road. Zero noticed that and peered over his shoulder. "Something heavy was dragged across the ground here." The beastman stood up as he followed the marks on the ground. Each building they passed by showed the same picture. Open doors, yet nobody home. No real signs of a battle, but certainly some sort of panic with tables and chairs being thrown to the side, broken bottles and other objects laying on the ground. Mercenary didn't bother to look into the abandonned houses. He could tell that they were empty and no one was hiding inside them.

The duo kept walking and before they knew it they stood before the building in the center of the town, the church. As if on cue, the sun had begun to settle, coloring the town into an ominous orange light as the clouds turned slightly darker. Like before, it was dead silent in the town, but right now everything was a bit too creepy for the duo's liking. The marks on the ground still showed that something was dragged inside the church as well as dirt had been collected on the steps and the doorstep.

First the two of them walked around the building, trying to find any other cues to what could have happened here. They found more marks on the ground, leading into the other parts of the town, but they didn't went over to check for anyone. They noted also some dried up droplets of blood, but by the age of them, it could have been weeks since whoever had bled here left his blood on the ground. The two of them also heard no sound from inside the church and Mercenary also didn't smell anything. It was very strange. Having circled around the building once, both Zero and Mercenary prepared for the worst since they had seen something similiar when they were still traveling with Albus. The sun had descended a bit deeper now as red mixed into the orange and colored the sky in deeper shades as the clouds even appeared violet now.

The two climbed up the stairs and Mercenary grabbed the handles of the door, before his eyes widened in shock and he took a step backwards, clearly startled.

"What is it?" Zero asked worried as she had not seen Mercenary like that ever before.

"The door… I swear it just...vibrated when I touched it." Mercenary said. Zero rose an eyebrow as she didn't hear a thing, yet eyeing the door suspiciously. She reached out and grabbed one handle herself. In the next moment she felt it. The handle really seemed to be vibrating as if it was humming from the vibrations. No that wasn't right. There was a faintly humming sound that the lingered in the air. It was as if the very air vibrated as the small shocks travelled up all the way to her shoulder, making her more than just uncomfortable. She let go of the door, though more calm and collected than Mercenary had just done.

The witch looked over to him. The look in her eyes said everything. She had felt it as well and it unsettled her.

*Flap* *Flap* *Flap*

"CAW! CAW! CAW! CAW! CAW!" The sudden noise created by a flock of crows flying up from the roofs and trees they had been sitting upon, startled both Zero and Mercenary and made them visibly flinch as the witch was ready to use some spell on the birds out of reflex, while Mercenary's hand had travelled up to his sword's handle, grabbing it tightly and ready to draw it out of it's sheath in a second. But when both of them saw that only a flock of startled birds had taken off into the distance, both dropped their arms and sighed in relief.

"This is really beginning to get on my nerves." Zero muttered to herself.

"Dammit. To be afraid of a bunch of some birds? What am I? Some scaredy cat?" Mercenary grumbled as his hand left his sword and walked up to Zero and the door.

"What now?" The small witch asked.

"We just take a little peak inside. If it gets too hot, we run for it." Mercenary said.

"Oh please. As if there was anything to fear. Remember you have me, the most powerful witch Zero by your side after all." The girl stated with confidence.

"Yet you lacked the power to turn me into a human like we agreed on."

"Hey! That's not fair! You know I lost a lot of my power there as well." Zero pointed out, before they both turned to the door. Neither of them really wanted to do this. They both had a really bad feeling about this. Still, in order to figure out what happened here, they'd need to get inside that church.

"Alright. Here it goes." Mercenary said quitely as he grabbed the handles once again. Trying his best to ignore the strange sensation on his hand, he took a last deep breath and opened the double door. But in the moment he did that, the stench of death punched him and Zero right in the face like a whiplash and the sound of humming and smacking was resonating through the air. Their eyes began to tear up a bit and both covered their mouths with a piece of cloth, but it did little to nothing at all.

It was pitch black in the church and the only light came inside through the now opened door. When their eyes adjusted to the darkness, the saw something that made the blood freeze in their veins. It was a sight that one could only call a nightmarish sight to be behold. It were mountains of corpses, that filled almost the entire room of the church. Men, women, children and elderly people were piled up and arranged along the walls as if to replace them with walls of rotten flesh. Blood had dried up on the bodies' skins, leaking out of holes over all the bodies onto the ground, eyes as well as mouths torn wide open that seemed to release a soundless wailing cry of pain, despair and agony. Limbs hung limply out of the mass of flesh as the walls seemed to move on their own.

No, that was not right. The bodies didn't just seem to move. They did move or rather something inside them. Beneath the skin of the bodies, one could see many tiny things move all over the body. Like large hairy warts or tumors, they scrambled around the body. It was almost as if someone was moving their finger beneath a blanket. Zero really had to resist the urge to puke right then and there.

And then there was this humming sound of flies. It penetrated the air, made it vibrate with them beats of hundreds of thousands of tiny wings and almost made it impossible to hear one's own ragged breath. The insects were very large like gadflies and swarmed the bodies of the dead like a cloud made of chitin. A smacking sound coming from the dead bodies was underlining the scenery before the travelers.

In other words, it was truly a picture that may as well have come straight out of the depths of hell. More specifically the place where the Lord of Gluttony Beelzebub resided.

The beastfallen swallowed loudly the lump in his throat. He had seen a lot. Had been hunted for years for being a beastman and then there was _that_ incident that gave him that nickname of "The Black Beast of Death", but this was a massacre that put even his most violent deed into shame. It was indeed something only something not humane would have done. While he had seen beastmen succumbing to their animal like nature in their frenzy, this was too much even for them.

Zero on the other hand looked in shock at what displayed itself before her, covering her mouth with one hand as if she was going to throw up right then and there. Luckily she kept it in, but she couldn't block out the stench of death. Her eyes watered up a little from the biting stench in her eyes as her already fair skin turned paler. She had seen what the wizards of Zero had done under the command of Thirteen, but this was really taking the cake. Shaking out of her stupor she looked around the scene once more, before signaling her companion to get outside. The beastfallen closed the door as quietly as possible, which was quite difficult as he had to do his best not to just slam them shut after what he had seen as the two of them finally fell into a coughing fit and taking a few deep breathes of fresh air, though the taste of that foul air still lingered in their mouths, biting into their tongues as a bitter aftertaste.

"What the hell was that? Some failed magical experiment?" Mercenary asked as he remembered the story of how witches had unleashed a plague and Albus' grandmother Sorena was thought to be responsible and thus was executed, starting the witch hunts.

"I don't know. But that was definitely not normal. Something in there…wasn't right here. These things…" Zero eyed the church once more, her face turning slightly green at the picture of all those corpses in her mind's eye.

"Could it be the work of sorcerers? But then they would have to be even more extreme than those Sorcerers of Zero. To think someone killed so many…" The beastman said the last part with a snarl as his paw like hand curled into a tight fist.

"Maybe… But even for them it seems to be too extreme. Also those bodies were piled up afterwards. So we are not dealing with some trainees failing some experiment. Those bodies were piled up on purpose." Zero said. That only got Mercenary angrier, but then he suddenly went still as he perked up his ears. Zero looked at her companion puzzled. "What is it? Do you hear something?" Mercenary kept quiet for a moment, before responding.

"No… I don't hear anything at all anymore." He said as he looked at the church once more. He was getting a really bad feeling from this.

And then an all too familiar voice come out of nowhere.

"So you have found them. Well how was it?" The voice came from behind the two travelers as the witch and beastman first tensed up and then turned towards it.

"What? Thirteen-" Zero said before she was cut off with body hitting the ground.

*Thud*

A corpse fell down at the front of the fountain, immediately making both the beastfallen and the witch look in horror as they saw the mutilated corpse of Thirteen laying at the ground. His face was contorted in pain just like those in the church. Wide opened eyes and mouth, dried bloody tears and the skin sickly pale. The worst thing was a large gaping mouth lacking ist lower jaw as something had torn it out alongside his throat. Maybe it was even what killed him in agonizing pain. Zero's hair stood up to all ends and Mercenary's muscles tensed up. While he didn't like that wizard at all, he was Zero's brother figure and therefore meant a lot to her. That was made even clearer as silently tears began to form in the girl's wide open eyes.

For a moment, the two of them were unable to look away from the horrible looking corpse of Thirteen, before their eyes travelled upwards to the fountain where the culprit stood. Once again they could only gape at what they saw as before them stood something on top of the fountain, that was neither human, witch or beastfallen.

It was a creature resembling a humanoid fly. Its arms were long and lanky, ending in two sharp looking claws for fingers On the head sat two large compound eyes. While they held no expression, Zero and Mercenary felt the many individual eyes focus on them as if they wanted to penetrate them like spears. Instead of a mouth, the creature had a long spear like proboscis. The legs looked just like the arms. Lanky, slim appendages with clawed feet. A large abdomen sat at the thighs of the insect with a large stinger at the end. The carapace was in a dark gray color while black hair grew on it. With the monster being about half the size as Mercenary, thus being a bit taller than Zero herself, this creature was indeed something that seemed to have emerged from a nightmare.

Even more disturbing was what the creature held in hands. One of them held a human-like skull, that for unknown reasons grew horns like that of a mountain goat where the eye sockets should have been and in the slightly sharper than normal teeth a venom green orb was held. The orb pulsed every now and then in an ethereal glow from within and every time it did, veins of the same color pulsed with it across the skull. In another hand, the creature held a bizarre looking staff. Its base looked sharp and jagged like a ceremonial knife. The handle looked like a spine and at its tip the staff sported a similar orb, but it was dark violet and it was not held by a human skull, but what seemed to be a horse skull. The fact that both items were white like snow underlined the fact that they were indeed made of bones. The other two arms were unoccupied and hung loosely from the body as the creature continued without waiting for an answer of Zero or Mercenary.

"Mhn? Was it truly that breathtaking? That beautiful? Hahaha! I see. Well, it did take me quite a lot of time to gather so many bodies at one place for the young to incubate, you know?" The fly laughed and snickered, while a smacking and chittering sound underlined its words, making it sound even less human. Something about that made Mercenary snap out if his stupor. The most disturbing part was that it was talking with the same voice as Thirteen. It was Thirteen's voice for sure, but it was not him who spoke. Instead this… thing, this monstrousity did the talking.

"You…You did this? You killed these people?" Mercenary growled his hand reaching for his sword.

"Indeed beastman. A few villages raided and a town being killed provides you with so many bodies, you could eat for months and wouldn't be able to finish it all before it rots away." The fly cackled in a wicked tone. "Not to mention all those bandits that came to raid for what was left of the belongings and the animals around here. Hehehe… Hahahaha!"

Mercenary felt a shiver run down his spine as he heard this insect laugh with the voice of Thirteen. He had seen many beastmen in his life, even lunatics, but there was never one that was an insect. He had seen pigs, bears, even birds, lizards and frogs, but not once had one of them resembled an insect or a spider. And then there was the fact that his voice sounded just like Zero's brother. How could that be? Was Thirteen's throat missing because that thing had stolen his voice somehow?

As if Zero had read his mind, she asked the question after she wiped the tears from her face and gave the insect a cold look.

"What are you? Some demon?" Zero asked in a dangeour sounding tone as Mercenary grabbed his sword tightly. The fly stopped laughing as its voice somehow had dropped from joyful to neutral, which didn't make it sound less disturbing and menacing at all.

"Demon? Do I look like one to you, little girl?" The fly asked.

"Well you are not a beastfallen since you called my friend one, so I'd presume that you are some sort of demon summoned by a wizard." Zero said as her hands clenched into fists. Suddenly the air grew colder by the second as the eyes of the fly seemed to glow in a malevolent red.

"Summoned by some lowly human? Compared to some weak demon?" It's voice was still passive with an unmistakable undertone of anger. It's body quivered and shook in rage as its back sprouted two large translucent wings. "YOU TRASH COMPARE ME TO THE LIKES OF WEAK LESSER CREATURES LIKE THAT!" It roared in unparalled fury. A dark aura surrounded the fly as Mercenary and Zero found themselves unable to move. "I am Stililius, the creation of a supreme being. To be compared to lesser creatures such as yourself, a little girl, that dresses like some low class prostitute...Blasphemy!" The creature's tone then changed as it chuckled. "But that won't be important to you anyway. The little ones are always hungry. Always growing in numbers. Soon they will finish this place and then sweep across the land, devouring everything in their way." It then pointed at them with one of its unoccupied hands. "And you two are next."

"Not if you get stopped before." Mercenary roared as he drew his sword, but the insect laughed into the white tiger's face as Zero was already prepared to use some spell on the creature before them. She may have lost a lot of her power, but she was sure she could take on some creature like that.

"Stopping me, an apostle of a being above angles, demons and gods alike? And with such a feeble weapon? Ha! What ignorance! I spare you this much of praise for your foolish Courage. But even if you'd manage to strike me down, it would be useless. The young ones don't need me to give them commands. They just follow their instinct. However, since you are apparently out for blood as I can see in both of your eyes, I'll gladly kill you first."

With a snap of his clawed fingers, the church behind them suddenly exploded into noise once more. The same was going on with the body the fly had just dropped. The body of Thirteen emitted a squelching sound as it twisted and bulged as if possessed when suddenly a torrent of flies shot out of them like a geyser. Hundreds and thousands of large, hairy insects with black carapaces and hair as well as seemingly red-orange glowing compound eyes poured out of mouth, nostrils, eye sockets or simply burst out the skin with an horrible, high pitched screeching sound, forcing their way into the world. Without any verbal command the mass of insects moved as one like a single organism into the air.

In the same moment, the glass windows of the church exploded as more and more flies left the building like the tendrils of a squid reaching towards the sky, joining the other ones from Thirteen's body in a large swarm. Mercenary and Zero turned around in horror as the black cloud of thousands maybe even hundred thousands of moving bodies was simply gathering over them and seemed to stay still for a moment. Just flying over the church and the village. The fly then pointed its staff at the two travelers.

"[Paralyze]." It said and the orb emitted a faint glow at this. Suddenly both Mercenary and Zero were completely taken off guard by this spell as they suddenly found themselves unable to move their bodies at all. "While I'd enjoy watching you try and run away from them, it would be a bother to follow you to watch your demise. So I'll just keep you there." The fly cackled as Zero's brain ran with 1000 mph in circles.

She was the one who wrote the grimoire of zero, the book that simplified all magic formulas so that everyone could learn and understand it. Yet, this spell just now was opposing everything she knew. Not chant. No incarnation other than the name of the spell. No book mentioned. No magic circle. It was a completely different type of magic. Kind of to be expected as she had also never seen such a creature before, but then again she lived her whole live in some cave. She could feel that the magic was different as she was unable to break free as well in that moment. She and Mercenary turned a last time up to the fly caster and then up to the swarm of flies.

Then they dived down like thousands of little kamikaze bombers with neckbreaking speed.

Before Zero was even half through with a spell, planning to incinerate the insects in midair, the flies had reached and attacked her. Biting and clawing the girl, they made Zero cry out in pain, losing concentration over the spell as each bite felt like acid being poured into her body, while some of the flies even embedded themselves in her flesh just due to the speed of their impact as they trashed around with their small yet razor sharp claws.

"ZERO!?" Mercenary tried to keep them away from her with his greatsword, swinging it like a club, but it was as useless as standing against the flood. The sword maybe was long enough to reach her, but the flies simply dodged each swing as they also attacked him. They living tide of insects slipped through every crevice in the defenses. Even when swiped at, they just landed on the ground, shook themselves a little in irritation and attacked again with new vigor. After all it were no ordinary flies obviously.

They came from all sides at once. Above, the sides, front, back and below. The swarm had no mercy on its two next victims and even with the thick fur providing some obstacle for the flies on Mercenary, they also targeted areas that were not covered in hair like eyes, nose, mouth and ears. Zero's spell returned the damage of Mercenary to herself, but that spell only would stay active as long as the user was alive. And with the additional damage done to Mercenary, Zero's lifespan was exhausted within seconds after the first attack as the flies spew a foul venom into her bloodstream. Soon after the initial attack, Mercenary, who was no longer spared any wounds from the flies, roared in pain as he forced himself to endure the pain and fight the impossible odds against him. But it was useless as darkness soon engulfed him and he fell to the ground as well.

That was the end for Mercenary and Zero as both of them died in the chokehold of the flies. Their dying cries had been drowned in the endless humming of thousands of insects.

Stililius stood on the fountain as he watched the insects getting to work fast by laying eggs into the dead bodies as they defiled everything about them. It would only take a couple of days for the new ones to be be born. After the maggots would hatch, they'd start to eat away the carcasses slowly as if savoring the taste of fresh meat and stripping them to the bones. The fly chuckled to itself as out of its probuscis a leech like creature with a pair of human lips for a mouth emerged. A lip bug was a weak Monster that according to the lore of YGGDRASIL ate the vocal cords of its victims and when attached to the throat would make the sound of the one attached to it sound like the one, who had their vocal cords eaten.

That way it was able to even turn some of the Sorcerers of Zero into food as it caught them off guard as Thirteen's execution had been faked before everyone. Also it made Things easier to communicate as Stililius' own voice sounded more distorted with smacking, clicking and screeching sounds. Stililus turned his head to the forest atthe Edge of the Kingdom. The flies over there would also be finished soon. At the horizon dark clouds gathered for a coming thunderstorm. The fly went over to the dead bodies and carried them inside the church, before closing the door behind it as night began to fall.

The distant roar of thunder would herald the coming of a catastrophe unknown to man until now.

* * *

It had rained for 2 days straight. As if someone had turned on the water, rain flooded the land. It was as if someone was trying to wash away a presistent stain on the earth. Tiny fists of water drummed against the tiles of the roofs and streets, until with the evening of the second day it finally stopped.

That was all the time the kingdom had been given by nature, before another catastrophe swiped across the country.

Once all corpses were eaten up and the maggots matured into fully grown flies, Stilius sent the swarm into the kingdom, that had just barely recovered from the civil war started by Thirteen. The bugs from the raided towns and villages converged together with those in the forests to one swarm as it flew over the land like a blanket of death. At the same time, those flies that were in secret hideouts of the Sorcerers of Zero acting as sleeping cells poured outside on several locations across the country even when far away from the swarm. Millions of tiny insects, each not bigger than a ping-pong ball suffocated all life that was in there.

Cattle and humans alike were killed without having a chance to fight back against millions of tiny claws and mandibles. Any creature that could fly away or hide quickly enough was killed an devoured by the buzzing swarm. Farms and meadows where sheep, horses and cows grazed peacefully became places of slaughter as the insects didn't spare even the lambs, foals and chicks from their venomous bite.

All across the country the sorcerers and witches tried to fight the menace of the flies, but they had just regained the ability to cast magic again and there were not as many of them as before the magic was sealed away. And those that could cast magic again stood just at the beginning once more, making them far weaker than they had been before.

Also the insects were countless as their numbers grew with every being they killed. It was like fighting a tsunami with a sword. No known fire spell was strong enough to burn them all at once. No known wind spell was strong enough to tear them apart in midair. No known water spell could keep up with the sheer number. For each monster that fell a dozen others took their place, moved around any incoming spell and arrow before launching themselves en masse at their opponent, burying them under the weight of hundreds.

Some people tried to flee into their houses by barricading every door and window, but it wasn't safe their either as the creatures tore through glass, wood and Stone just to force themselves inside to reach their trapped prey and finish them off. Even the cracks in walls were simply expanded by the tiny creatures's mandibles, allowing them to simply dig through the walls of houses and doors alike. Like that they simply made their way into the kingdom deeper regions of the Kingdom and began to spread across the land like a flood as nothing could withstand the sheer number of the swarm.

Before they attacked the capital of the kingdom, they rested for only a short amount of time as they used the freshly killed bodies to incubate the next generation of flies, which developed within days. The king noticed that and ordered the remaining forces of surviving soldiers and sorcerers to burn the corpses to prevent them spreading any further. Unfortunately, that was a fruitless effort as each body thrown into the flames erupted in screeching noises and half matured flies came out of the bodies, before dropping dead on the ground was only a drop in the ocean. The small victory was shortlived as nothing could prevent the flies from hatching. The forces of the kingdom couldn't even press forward into the land as a whole as the flies even though resting attacked everything that entered their territory be it man or beast.

When they emerged en masse from their incubators, they all flew up into the air and covered the skies like a massive blackish-gray thunderstorm cloud as they gathered once more to attack the capital with the full might of the numbers. Like a swarm of fishes they circled around one another with their summoner in the eye of this living, flesh-eating, black hurricane.

And then they attacked from above. Like a waterfall, the creatures dove down and poured all over the city.

The high walls of the capitals, that had been meant to keep invaders out, failed completely against this flying enemy.

Catapults and burning arrows were useless as the insects easily dodged the oversized projectiles and only killed an insignificant amount.

The royal knights, that had been hailed for their courage and strength, attempted to run away as they noticed the futility of their resistance. Their enemy left no weakness unexploited. They simply crept inside their shining armors and devoured the men underneath alive, without them having any chance to shake them off.

The few beastfallen that were still in the city were just like the knights either trying to fight back or trying to run away and seek shelter. Only a few of them at least died honorable in a battle they couldn't win.

The sorcerers held a last defense line there on that day, but it was easily broken down under the might of millions.

Those that attempted to flee or hide within the walls were found quickly and finished off without the chance to scream for help.

Even the royal castle was invaded as thick clouds of flies smashed through the large windows and quickly spread out to find any living soul. The cowardly king sacrifised his loyal guards, by pushing them into their enemy to reach a secret tunnel out of the capital. But he was not even halfway through it when the door was broken open and the swarm flooded the tunnel like water.

The "Battle for the Capital" as one might call the onesided slaughter lasted not even 2 hours. Still the flies didn't leave the capital. They had now new corpses to lay their eggs in and they wasted no time to go to work. This was also part of the plan.

There were still those that had survived the attack in tightly locked places. They thought themselves as safe, but in truth they were the unluckiest souls of all as they were not granted a swift death, but a long and agonizing one. By trapping themselves in closed rooms like cellars and crypts, they could never leave without risking to let a whole army of flies into their shelters and dooming all occupants at once. After several days, they were all dead. They had either starved and dead of thirst or succumbed to diseases, that the flies had infected the people with through their venomous salvia if they survived the bites.

They only were killed faster when they were found by the insects through crevices or fools driven out by their hunger, that tried to venture out after days of silence, looking for supplies. That or when a fly managed to lay its egg into a living host and the maggots ate it from the inside out, before they died and burst into a swarm of flies that attacked the other people around them.

Within less than a month, all that had been human was wiped out for good from the face of the land. The kingdom has fallen. Trampled into ruins by an enemy, they would never have seen coming.

Stililius himself, who had watched the mayhem take place from above the city and almost had felt like a director for the orchesta of wailing screams of agony during the "battle", had made his way to the throne room of the castle and sat down the empty throne. The throne of the king might have been valuable, bt for him it was Nothing more than a pretty yet useless object he could only use for decoration at best. He stood up and walked to a balcony, meant for the royalty to step outside to overlook their blooming city and maybe even hold a speech to the common folk. He looked over town devoid of any human, sorcerer or beastfallen. Instead he only saw black dots fly around the city. The city and the entire country was now dominated by the flies.

Stililius knew that now that this place was empty, the swarm would need to spread out beyond this empty kingdom to find food. After all, flies had usually not a very long lifespan. But he was more than sure that beyond this kingdom there was plenty of food for them. The thought made the insect mage chitter happily a little bit.

And Stililius was sure that he had pleased his god, his creator. Now he only had to wait for the day when he would unite with them once again, so he could give them this world to rule as the rightful ruler. Until then he would secure this place for their return.

* * *

OC Profile

Name: Stililius

Epithet: The Pest Fly

Race: Insect Mage

Gender: Male

Biography: Originally created in YGGRASIL as a custom NPC, Stililius is a completely fanatically devoted individual to the player, who made him as for him they were a god. Like all custom NPCs he had taken on the personality given to him by his maker, who had made them a person, that loved to inflict terror and despair into any living soul, be they friend, ally or enemy. Also his liking into gore also stems from his written personality.

Upon being summoned outside of the dungeon he was made in without any other NPCs or players to interact with, Stililius became somewhat more insane, believing that he had displeased his creator and thus sought redemption by doing what his creator would have wanted him to do. Senseless slaughter for the sake of slaughtering itself.

The insect mage had been within the kingdom already when Zero took away all the magic from it, however the fly was unaffected not through a high magic resistance, but the fact that his magic, the tier based magic from YGGDRASIL, was completely different from the demon based sorcery which was the base for the magic that Zero created, thus making it impossible for her to even affect him.

During that time, the fly had already summoned Pest Flies, low level, ferocious, carnivorous fly monsters, that can inflict poison damage on their enemies. Unlike undead however, these creatures were real organisms and had no medium, which however also meant that they don't stay forever in the world as summons usually disappear after some time. These flies however reproduced in their short lifespan and the second generation was no longer summons, yet listened to Stililius command, creating an ever growing number of insects due to their short reproduction time and high reproduction rate. Like ordinary flies, they laid their eggs into caracasses thus providing them with a large number of corpses would exponentially rise the numbers of the insects. They became the tool for Stililius to wield.

* * *

_Omake_

After Stililius killed the Thirteen by suprising him on his way back to the underground community which he had left all that time ago, he used a lip bug to copy his voice. This was of Course to grant himself access to the other mages' bases that were still all around the country and to infect them with the swarm.

But there was a second reason for that. He just really liked the voice of that man. Unlike his raspy and weird sounding voice, this man's voice made it able for him to be actually understood by people for once. God knows how many unfortunate victims he had tried to lure in by Talking to them only for them to look at him strangely because they couldn't really understand what he said.

"Hehehe. Hehohoho. Hehehahahaha. HAHAHAHA!" Stililus laughed maniacally at the sound of this stolen voice. "You thought it was Thirteen, but it was me, Dio!"

**(Sorry. I couldn't resist ever since I looked up Thirteen's original voice actor being Takehiro Koyasu as I only watched the german version of the anime~ ^-^;)**


	3. Chapter II: Apex Predator

Chapter II: Apex Predator (Behemoth's Pet)

* * *

In another world exists a certain type of dangerous places, that most people in their right minds would avoid even going near. They can spread from relatively small to incredible sizes underground with many tunnels and floors. If one was to just head inside them and didn't mind where they were going, one could easily get lost in them without ever seeing the sky again.

What made these places so dangerous, however wasn't the possibility to get lost in them. It was their ability to simply create monsters out of thin air. Where a moment before nothing was, could a creature suddenly have come into existence in the next. And as the name monsters indicates, most of such creatures were rather hostile to foreign intruders of their birthplace as well as to one another.

These places were called labyrinths, though the terms mazes or dungeons were also commonly used.

Each labyrinth was different with its interior design, the number of floors, the monsters it spawned and so on. No one knew where the labyrinths actually came from or what gave them the power to just create life from nothing. In worst case scenarios, monsters would leave the dungeon and attack the people on the surface. Entire settlements could be destroyed by monsters and some things they could do to the people are better left unsaid.

However, despite the danger that a journey into a labyrinth brought with it as the return back to the surface was never a given thing, people still ventured into the depths. These people were referred to as adventurers. Trained with weapons, capable of using magic or in some cases even both, these rather independent individuals went down into the labyrinths to seek their fortune in that dangerous place.

They were by no means foolish or suicidal in the slightest for doing so as the labyrinths did not only provide the world with monsters that attacked humans, elves and all the other sentient beings of the world. Certain kinds of herbs and ores could only be found inside labyrinths and the bodies of monsters could be harvested for materials. These things could then be used to create all sorts of different products, ranging from armor and weapons for adventurers to objects of daily use. That was the reason why adventurers went down into the labyrinths, even though the journey was always dangerous and they could become just another corpse on the pile of the thousands that have lost their lives within those places.

For that fact, it could be said that the people of this world actualled depended at least partly on the labyrinths.

One such labyrinth was surrounded by a large city, which had grown over many years around the labyrinth, which in itself was unique as people usually didn't settled down near a place that spawned out monsters. People of many races filled the streets as they were going after their daily businesses. The city was prospering well with adventurers going into the depths to earn their money by completing quests, requests given to them by either the guild that managed the otherwise lawless bunch of people or by individual people of course against payment, and merchants that took the gathered resources the adventurers brought to the surface and either sold them as raw material directly or crafted them into items and then sold them. The supply was there with the dungeon and the demand from the outside world as well as from normal civilians in the town was limitless.

The city itself again was surrounded by high walls as canals stretched around the city and provided a seaway for gondolas, which were used often by both merchants to transport their goods and tourists that simply wanted to visit the city. The walls, however, were not meant for protection from outside enemies. They were a meassure for the case that the monsters escaped the labyrinth and overran the town above. With thick and high walls, large and heavy gates on each entrance to the city, the entire town could be almost hermetically sealed off, allowing nothing to escape the town.

This for example was necessary for the case of a very powerful monster emerging from the depths such as the legendary behemoths who were seen as living natural disasters. It certainly didn't happen very often, but it was common knowledge that with the only place monsters spawned being the labyrinths, that it was only a matter of time before another exceptionally strong monster would appear.

It was just a matter of time...

* * *

Dimmed light shown on different places within the labyrinth, providing light to the usually dark hallways.

A few goblins was currently prowling through one of the upper floors as they were Looking for something to eat. Even thought birthed by the dungeon, they were still living creatures and needed just to breath, eat and sleep like any other normal being. The goblins were wearing pointy heads and simple clothes. Their skin was green an their noses were big and pointy. Being rank E monsters like slimes, goblins were bottom feeders in the food chain of the labyrinth.

Yet one shouldn't underestimate them. While holding the reputation of being the weakest kind of monsters, they were still dangerous as they usually ambushed enemies and worked in small groups together to overwhelm stronger opponents through numbers. Lacking any real natural weapons, they usually fought with small daggers and knives. All in all, they were weak among other monsters, but they made their weaknesses up through numbers and intelligence.

The group of five was walking fast through the halls of the labyrinth almost running at this point. They turned around and seemed to always look twice, hoping to find some unfortunate creature to prey upon like some stupid orc. While those were higher ranked with a rank D, orcs were more muscle than brains. A well organized group of goblins could definitely take on one of them when they played their advantages over the pig like creature right.

Unfortunately, the goblins found nothing as they stalked through the halls when they suddenly heard a Sound. Immediately they stopped to listen. What they heard were footsteps getting louder. While that meant that something was moving closer to them, they couldn't say what it was yet. In the worst case it was a monster that would eat them instead.

"Where the hell is the exit of this place? You can't be serious that someone designed this dungeon to be such a mess."

But then they heard words. Though they had only a pseudo language themselves to coordinate one another, the goblins knew what it sounded like when one of the surface dwellers spoke even when they couldn't understand it. The sounds became sounder as a shadow grew on a wall of a crossroad ahead. Driven by hunger the green monsters went ahead and hid behind the corner. The sound became louder and louder until the tension broke with the goblins pouncing at their unfortunate victim with their knives ready to stab them to death.

Unfortunately for them, they never knew what hit them as swift and fast blows knocked the goblins out of the air, breaking their bones and caving their skulls in, before they all hit the ground after flying a short distance. Their knives fell clattering to the ground as the metal fell onto the floor made of bricks.

"Another ambush. Geez, these guys just don't learn." The supposed victim said as it sighed.

Standing at a height of about 1.9 meters was no human, elf or beastkin as one would have guessed. The creature had a humanoid body, but that and ist intelligence was all it had in common with humans. The being could be described as a wolf walking on its hindlegs. Gray brown fur covered its body with darker fur on the back and the snout and limbs being brighter with almost white fur. The creature had claws on both hands and feet as well as a short tail. Wearing simple leather armor it was not looking like a usual savage animal or monster at all. And it wasn't

Remulus was a kobold and a player of YGGDRASIL. About a day ago he had awoken in this underground labyrinth and had ascended from the floor below. Originally, Remulus had a giant avatar for the game, but at some point he became bored with it and changed his race to werewolf. Unfortunately, due to the widespread racism against heteromorphic races in the game Remulus was constantly killed or harrassed by other players without any reason. So he had to delete this character as well and created his current kobold as the race of humanoid canidae demihumans had what he had appreciated about both former avatars.

But that was all in the past. Now he was in some Underground dungeon that was similiar but very different from what he knew in the game.  
Then again, he never had been really in a dungeon of YGGDRASIL as himself.

He had always been unconscious in his chair as he played the game while only interacting with the world through his avatar. He never had seen all those places in the game with his own eyes. He had never touched sword with his own hand. He never felt the feeling of the grains of sand shift under his own feet. In the end all had been done by his avatar and now it was his body apparently.

The situation at first had been very weird and awkward for him. After all, he was the one who had created and designed this body and therefore knew absolutely every detail of it. Yet the feeling of having fur all over the body and the tail as an extra appendage was completely alien to him.

In the end, he had no choice but to deal with it. After all what was he supposed to do about it anyway? Cut off his tail and ears like he was a doberman? Yeah not happening...

So instead he immediately began to wander around the labyrinth. Almost instantly he met goblins and started to talk with them, asking for directions. Unfortunately for him, there seemed to be a language barrier between him and the other demihuman races around as they replied by trying to stab him with a battle cry. Testing out his striking strength on them at that he casually punched one of them in the chest, only for the goblin's ribcage to be completely smashed in and all bones being pulverized upon impact as the creature dropped dead. Being a level 100 monk type player sure had some advantages in close combat. Or being level 100 in the first place as the crude daggers of the goblins actually shattered against his fur.

Ever since then he had not tried very often to talk to any creature as absolutely every time he encountered another monster they tried to kill him.

A large snake tried to bite him only for their teeth to actually break off.

A minotaur swung its large axe at him, but the weapon broke against his head as he tried talking to it.

An orc smashed its club against his back only to bounce off and hit the stupid pig right in the face.

A wyvern shot its fire breath into Remulus' face, but the kobold only felt a warm breeze washing over him as if he stood in front of a heater.

A golem tried crushing him in his fingers made of metal, but the fingers shattered before the kobold had even felt anything more than a tight embrace around him.

And when a roper tried to touch Remulus with ist many tentacles, it got blasted straight into a wall.

Even a slime, a bane to monks in YGGDRASIL due to their physiology making physical attacks rather useless against them stood no chance against Remulus when it had grabbed both his legs and the kobold replied by simply punching the puddle he had accidentaly stepped upon leaving only a smoking crater in the ground.

'This place is a joke.' Was all that Remulus could actually bring himself to think about these abyssmal weak monsters. From the looks of it even that golem and the wyvern being the strongest kinds he encountered so far were not even level 30.

A player at the very beginning of YGGDRASIL would only receive a set of armor fitting the character and nothing else. The game was very challenging because people had to explore the world on their own and trading informations among one another was like trading items as some people really couldn't help and had beginning players pay high sums for sometimes completely useless or made up Information. It was considered a prank by such people, but they were also the only ones laughing when a level 1 player stepped on the landmine that was a nest of Level 40 monsters.

If this dungeon had been in YGGDRASIL and it wouldn't be for all the weirdness of a new body capable of feeling, smell and taste, this dungeon would be ideal for new players of the game regardless of their class or race to grind experience and level up. But for a level 100 kobold like himself, walking around here was basically a waste of time if it wasn't for the fact that a tiny part of Remulus wanted to explore this dungeon as a whole.

Sadly the canine had to be betrayed by his own stomach that rumbled slightly as the feeling of hunger returned to his senses. Unlike certain races like undead or golems from the game, kobolds had to eat and being on the run for almost 24 hours was a little straining for even him with an empty stomach. And actually the kobold didn't trust the mushrooms that grew on some spots nor the corpses of monsters to be edible. So he relied on a rather small number of Food items he had in his inventory.

'I just hope I get out of here and find something else to eat.' He thought to himself sweatdropping.

* * *

"Ah!" Remulus woke up with a startle when he heard a high pitched voice. Cracking his eyes open immediately he sat up and tried to locate the source of the noise. With his heightened senses of smell and hearing it would be very easy to actually find who or whatever made that sound. Standing there for 5 seconds, waiting for anymore sounds, Remulus tried to concentrate. His superior senses had already saved his skin more than once at it had allowed him to sense his enemies faster and dodge incoming attacks like an arrow shot by a goblin.

*Thud*

Then he heard something hit the ground. It sounded like as if a plastic toy had fallen down on the stone tiles.

"Oh no... It happened again..." A soft feminine voice muttered sadly. That really made Remulus sprint towards the noise. So far he had only heard the pseudo language of the goblins and maybe the angry roars of other monsters, but now he clearly heard someone talk in his own language. Faster than he even realized he could move (and surprisingly wagging his tail in rapid succession for some reason), he basically leapt through the corridors until he arrived at the place the voice came from.

Crouching to the ground, a small figure sat there looking at him with wide brown eyes. It looked like a little human girl with a white robe drapped over her body, but her feet were a whole different story. They were covered in scales and sported curved claws on avian feet.

'A harpy?' Remulus thought. Harpies were another kind of demihumans that players could choose to play as in YGGDRASIL. The original harpies from Greek mythology were creatures with the faces of beautiful women, but the bodies of birds, which were known for stealing food. While in YGGDRASIL there were also male indivudals of this race just like there were also male arachnes (though not many were created either as player avatars or as custom NPCs due to the preference of traditional female indivuduals), this was also a first for Remulus as the race was not very popular.

Shaking his head he took a step forward only for him to step on something with his clawed foot. Looking down he saw a plastic toy version of a goblin. Its arm and head had come off as Remulus spotted to more toys on the ground.

'Why are there toys here? Are those...hers?' He thought as the harpy slowly backed away in fear, before she pulled her hood over the head, revealing her arms with brown feathers and three claws.

"S-Stay away from me..." She said.

"Hey wait! It's okay I don't want to hurt you." Remulus tried to argue when he suddenly noticed the feeling under his foot had changed. Looking down he suddenly stood on top of a headless goblin corpse, which missed an arm as well. Blood spurted out of the missing body parts, that laid further away and the stumps on the torso. Quickly, the kobold jumped back.

'What the hell! What was that? I could have sworn it was a toy I stepped on. Was this an illusion or some sort of spell I don't know? Was there even such a thing in YGGDRASIL in the first place?' Remulus thought as he looked back at the harpy which had taken another step away from him.

"Wait! You are lost in here as well right? Does the word YGGDRASIL mean anything for you?" Remulus quickly blurted out. The harpy froze and nodded slowly. 'Great progress...' Remulus sighed in his mind. "Then let's get out of here together. We can surely find the way out of here faster." He said.

"No..." The harpy mumbled to herself.

"What?" Remulus asked perplexed.

"No. You need to leave me alone." She took another step back into the darkness of the tunnel.

"What? Why? What's wrong?" The kobold was slowly losing his patience as his voice became more irritated than he inteded it to be.

"No! Leave me alone!" With that suddenly a strong gust hit the kobold, causing him to fly a little, before he skid across the ground to a stop. Clicking his tongue, Remulus looked up to see that the harpy had run away, yet his ears still picked up her footsteps.

'Silent Cast Magic, huh? Well it did take me off guard.' With that Remulus gave the harpy chase, before her footsteps vanished completely. She was fast, even faster than himself. Most likely she had used her points on speed. 'Still why is she so afraid that he would run away from a fellow Player when I said that I mean no harm. Whatever, I can ask her when I catch up to her.' He thought as he jumped over a group of goblins.

This chase went on for more than half an hour as the harpy slowly gained more and more distance, while Remulus slowly became tired of jumping over monsters and dodging obstacles as well as preventing to run into walls with full speed. Something he did notice however was the change of the air. Further down the air seemed to be heavier, but now he actually smelled Fresh air. With other words, he had unintentionally moved closer to the surface. Though he couldn't tell how far it was away, he celebrated this Victory in his head. Unfortunately he had lost the harpy. She had simply been too fast.

"That roadrunner…" He muttered as he slumbed against a wall. He was only slightly physically exhausted, but running after that girl with no plan where she could have gone to would be pointless. Surprisingly he couldn't smell her either. Somehow she must have erased it on the run. Remulus wanted to chuckle. Just yesterday he was still a human man, who lived alone with his family in a tiny apartment together with his younger sibling and always got told by his parents to finally find himself a girl instead of wasting time playing games as it wouldn't ever get him closer to the opposite gender. And now here he was in some other world chasing some harpy because she was definitely another player.

How did he knew it was another world? He didn't, but it was the only logical conclusion given the monsters around him being extremely weak and looking slightly different from what he knew from YGGDRASIL, the fact that he had neither his display or his menu, couldn't call a GM and that his body felt more real than any current technology would be able to make him feel.

Yes, it was truly a laughing matter for him.

Remulus picked himself up as he began walking further down the tunnel he had been running in. The scent of fresh air, something his human lungs had never experienced before due to the heavy pollution of his world was becoming stronger but it was still faint. Most likely it would still take a long time to reach the surface of this place. Good thing he had packed some food items in his inventory. Without that, he probably wouldn't even have made it that far. But now his supply was gone as well. He needed to get out of this place.

The kobold kept walking forward when he heard something in the distance. The angry roar of a orc. While he had no interest in the pig monster itself it came from the same direction as the fresh air so it was most likely less work to simply walk through the orc's lair instead of trying to navigate around the monster. After all, he could simply punch the daylights out of the bipedal pig and be done with it. That backup plan in mind if things would get complicated, Remulus kept moving on.

That was when he entered a large empty room. Normally those rooms were occupied by monsters like minotaurs and orcs, but the orc in question was currently laying dead on the ground with a knife in its forehead. And the culprits were standing right there. It was a total of 2 people. One was a humanoid with cat ears, while the other was an elf. Oh and there was a cat too.

'Wait a Minute, a cat? Seriously?' Remulus knew of pets that could be quite useful in battle, but a cat was not one of them. In fact, Remulus believed that the devs of YGGDRASIL only included normal animals such as cats, dogs, rats, pigs, horses, cows and chickens in the game to make the world look more natural. If everything looked like it had jumped straight out of a dream or nightmare it would create a too unreal atmosphere.

Anyways, the two humanoids were both clearly female given the size of their busts. To be honest, both of them looked quite good, but this was not the time for that. The elf had fair skin, long platinum blonde hair and wore only light clothes instead of armor as she was armed with a pair of daggers. Clearly she was either an assassin type damage dealer, though her showing herself in battle was not fitting at all into that picture, or she was simply a damage dealer, who focused more on speed and damage output and therefore minimized armor as it would slow her down.

The cat girl on the other hand was wearing thick leather apron like a blacksmith as she had short blonde hair and tanned skin. In her hands she held the handle of a large hammer that was even a head bigger than herself. Her hands were covered in metal gauntlets. Remulus could only guess her to be a tank like fighter with such a large and heavy weapon.

As for the cat it looked not that imposing at all. Yellow fur with brown stripes and white fur around the mouth made it look like a little tiger to be honest if it wasn't for the white tail tip. Hazel colored eyes looked at him with a glint of intelligence in them.

The girls said something, but a language barrier made it impossible for Remulus to understand them at all. Their body language however was clearly anything else than peaceful. Remulus didn't blame them at all for that. After all he was a humanoid dog wearing armor. After a Moment, the girls looked back at him as they got into stances.

'So they are going to come at me then. What a pain. I think even if I go easy on them I'll end up killing them like those goblins. Still, somehow I get the feeling that there is something I'm missing. As if something was hiding in plain sight before me. Is it their weapons or perhaps some sort of skill? Maybe I should first take a look for myself.' He thought as he used a spell of his own. "[Life Essence]." The moment he spoke the name of the spell, colored pillars of light seemed to appear around the three of them. [Life Essence] together with [Mana Essence] allowed a player to see the current amount of HP and MP of their opponents if they were not shielded by some sort of magic that either didn't allow an estimation or sent false data to the player.

The result was surprising. Both the cat girl and the elf were both rather weak like the monsters of this dungeon being only around level 20 at best. The cat they had with them however was a whole different story. If HP pools were displayed by swirling whirlwinds around the target, this cat's HP gauge would simply have swallowed those of the girls like a raging tornado. The level he would estimate however was only around 40 to 50 . While it certainly wasn't bad for a normal cat, defeating a level 100 player with only that much power was like trying to water a massive field of crops with only a single drop of water. An impossible task. Already relatively small differences in the levels within the game could make the difference between a hard fought battle and a one sided slaughter. Still he was slightly interested in this power.

'I see. It's more than meets the eye...' Remulus thoughts came to a sudden end when the elf dashed with superhuman speed at him. At the same time, the cat had jumped forth and let out a loud meow when suddenly a fire ball roughly the size of a human torso appeared and shot towards the kobold. The magic projectile was faster than the elf, but both simply appeared for him rather slow as Remulus first sidestepped the fireball and then blocking the two daggers with his claws on one Hand alone. The elf's eyes widened at this, when a shadow appeared above him.

*Kaboom*

A large explosion rang through the room as the hammer of the cat woman came down on the spot Remulus had been before, who now stood a bit further away from the girls and their pet. The shorter cat girl was at first confused seeing no crushed kobold laying under her hammer, but she and her companions quickly spotted Remulus again who almost looked bored at them a few meters away from them.

'Why am I even doing this?' Remulus thought to himself when large icicles flew towards him following another meow from the cat. Dodging the projectile was easy as the kobold simply jumped up. Unfortunately, he had not calculated the strength of his own two legs at that point and crashed head first against the ceiling, creating a spideweb of cracks. 'This is so stupid.' Remulus though ashamed of himself as he descended to the ground once more, where a hammer wielding cat girl was waiting to attack. Bringing up both arm in a defensive manner, the player took the blunt force of the large weapon head on as he was sent skitting across the ground until his back hit a wall.

Keeping the arms up to defend himself, the kobold was immediately barraged by more slashes of the elf, though her knives were doing as much damage as a feather would have. Growing really tired of that blonde elf slashing at him, Remulus swiped the feet away with a weak kick. The girl's eyes widened as she noticed her balance being lost, but it was too late. Grabbing one of her arms, Remulus spun around and threw her into a wall. The girl gave an outcry of pain at this, before she slumbed down on the ground, trembling in pain.

Her companion screamed the Name "Aria!", which Remulus presumed to be the elf's Name. The cat let out a whining sound as it saw its companion being hurt as it glared at Remulus with killing intent and hissed at him.

"Oh so you don't like it when I do that?" He asked sarcastically, knowing fully well that the creature before him didn't spoke his language.

"Nyyyaaaa!" The cat responded by meowing very loudly as if it was trying to roar as several large rocks appeared in the air and flew towards Remulus with great speed.

'So it attacks like that from afar. That is actually a good match against my close combat. However...' Remulus thought as he lifted his arms to face the attack. But instead of blocking, he balled his hands into fists and stood there like a boxer. "[Greater Speed]!" Upon casting the buff spell, the body of the kobold felt incredibly light and energized as he saw the incoming boulders fly towards him. What in reality only took a second at best now seemed to have slowed down just enough to almost casually dodge the attacks. Punching each rock flying towards him to either shatter them or to change their direction so that they would miss, Remulus emerged from a cloud of debris completely unharmed.

The cat Woman and the cat seemed both more than surprised as a very clear shocked expression became visible on the cat's face. It would have been comical, if it wasn't for the fact that both of these two were trying to kill Remulus. Faster than they could watch, the kobold suddenly stood next to the cat, having crossed the distance instantly with his boosted speed, before pushing the cat away with one open hand.

The force with which this palm hit the cat's unprotected flank, catapulted the small feline across the room and crash into a wall. It wasnot as lethal as a punch would have been, but it certainly wasn't weak or painless.

"NNYYYYAAAUUU!?" It let out a pained scream upon its impact as it fell to the ground and struggled to get up. Remulus felt really bad for that cat. Hitting a defenseless animal out of pure malice was not something he would do. However, this cat, if it was a cat to begin with as its powers seemed to be more than unfitting for that, was capable of casting powerful spells and possessed quite a high amount of HP and MP. With other words, it was not only not defenseless at all, but Remulus was very sure that, if this feline actually got serious, this pet was very well capable of actually inflicting some damage.

As a monk, Remulus' attacks did less damage than those of most other fighter oriented classes, which only were effective due to attacking in rapid succession and with enough speed to both dodge and counter at the same time in exchange for defenses. Even if a single punch was for most other players on his level with higher defenses little more than a minor inconvinience since he wore no gauntlets or using a staff, by attacking multiple times very fast even enemies with a high HP pool could be brought down. Therefore, no matter how small damage was, all kinds of damage mattered for the kobold as the tables in a battle could always be turned from one moment to another.

The cat woman had shouted something to the cat, before her expression turned furious as she ran towards Remulus, swinging her hammer down with more blunt force than last time. Remulus sidestepped the attack, but then the Woman let go of her weapon, which was still embedded in the ground. A flaming aura engulfed both her gauntlets as she swung her fists at Remulus. Both hands hit the kobold in the chest when flames erupted on Remulus' body, igniting him like a bonfire.

'What the hell was that? Is she a monk as well? But what Kind of spell was that? No. It was no spell. Those gauntlets of hers are enchanted with some sort of fire damage inducing spell. Interesting. I don't remember there being such a thing in YGGDRASIL.' Remulus thought to himself as the flames washed over his body, but he barely felt them. Even though this cat person had landed a direct hit on him, the damage output was simply not big enough to cause actual damage on him.

Seeing her opponent alive and moving, the blonde cat girl tried to punch the kobold again, but Remulus countered by swatting her wrist away, before it got even close.

*Crack*

'Oops...' He thought as the girl screamed in pain, holding her injured arm as she jumped backwards. Judging from the cracking sound Remulus heard, his counter had just broken the poor girl's wrist. Still if she was at least smart enough to give up now, he was more than content. Unfortunately, this only seemed to have fueled her anger as she swung her uninjured fist at him. 'God, this woman is stubborn.' He thought as he punched her lightly in the chest, causing her to stop where she was as she spat out saliva and blood, before he grabbed her shoulder and gave her an half hearted push, causing her to lose balance and fall on her back.

"It's over. Finally." He told himself as he looked around him. The cat demihuman was laying on her uninjured arm, holding her other one as she drew shallow and quick breaths to ease the pain. Bruises covered her tanned skin now and small cuts allowed crimson blood to ooze out in small rivers across the skin. Her body trembled in fear and pain as Remulus looked down on her.

His eyes turned to the cat he had thrown into a wall earlier. It had managed to stand again, but it seemed to be not in the best shape to continue fighting. Its legs were shaking and growled at the kobold as its amber eyes glared daggers at him. It was really a pityful sight.

Then he saw the cat's body relax. All the tension seemed to have been released as its slit pupils widened to round ones. Also it didn't seem to look at him anymore. Quickly Remulus looked around as he found the elf girl from earlier missing. She was not where he had thrown her. So that meant...

*Slash*

A barrage of fast slashes hit Remulus' backside as Aria had used the distraction of the fight to get behind Remulus to attack. Though the attacks did no damage to the kobold and rather made the daggers blunt, the girl kept slashing at him as he took a few steps backwards and turned to her as he tried to get out of her range. Mistaking this as a sign of fear and a close victory, Aria dashed forward right into Remulus' face. And then she slashed with both of her knives at the kobold's face.

In that moment, something inside Remulus' snapped. It was a familiar sensation to him like everytime when a monster in this dungeon had attacked him with their attacks. In moments like when the wyvern's firebreath was only centimeters away and rushing towards him, the logically thinking part of Remulus seemed to shut down. Instead his human instincts cried out in primal fear.

"I am going to die!" was what all his human logic and instincts screamed in his mind at such moments, despite him knowing that the attack definitely wouldn't hurt, let alone take his life. Still the instinct to survive still created alongside the mental stress in that instant a physical, unconscious reaction in the body. Next to pouring adrenaline into his blood stream, accelerating physical power, movement speed and reaction time in turn, Remulus' new body still followed the mental command of their soul with a subconsciously executed reaction.

*Bam* *Crack* *Flosh* *Clatter* *Thud*

Blood flew threw the air as time seemed to slow down for a moment, before returning to its original pace. From one second to another, the elf girl had disappeared from Remulus' sight. He then noticed that he had his right hand in front of him and held something large and long made of metal in his grasp. It was the hammer of the cat girl, which she had abandoned to punch him.

In front of his was no something that made the kobold's stomach to turn upside down. Standing there perfectly still as if waiting for the command to move was the lower half of the elf. Everything from her waist up had be seperated from the waist bone, revealing bones, flesh and blood. Lots of blood. Remulus eyes travelled up as he spotted the upper half of Aria. Her face was cold and expressionless as her dead eyes looked still to the side with a small trail of blood was escaping her lips. Her daggers laid abandoned and blunt from hitting his body on the ground like discarded trash. Her clothes were torn as the upper half apruptly came to an end under the chest, causing part of the broken ribcage to be exposed and her organs to spill on the stone pavement below, painting the floor red.

To the left was a large red stain on the ground where the head of the hammer was coated in the same liquid. The ironrich smell invaded Remulus' sensitive nose as the stench of blood became so intense that it drowned everything else around him. His mind took the pictures of what he saw and reconstructed his memory to what had happened.

The moment Aria had slashed her daggers at Remulus, the kobold had known that behind him was the large hammer of the cat girl. He had done a step backwards and turned a little to the right to dodge the attack and grab the hammer's handle behind him at the same time. Planting a foot on the ground he then had swung the hammer with full force at the time the Aria's attack would have hit his face, if he had remained still. The weapon's speed and weight had created such force upon impact, that when it had hit her right thigh, it had pulverized the bones and crushed blood vessels, skin and muscle tissue alike. However, instead of stopping, the power and speed caused the hammer to dig even deeper inside Aria's body, breaking her spine and crushing her right kidney as well as a large portion of her lower intestinal tract. Because of that, her body was basically torn apart by the force unleashed, knocking her upper body several meters backwards through the air as the midsection of her body was brutally torn apart and was now reduced to a bloody stain on the ground.

The elf girl Aria had died immediately.

Remulus felt his chest getting tighter as his heartbeat accelerated.

He had done it. Even though he wanted to hold back and not fight with full power, it had turned out like that. He had comitted a sin unlike anything else in his entire life.

He had killed another sentient being. And a young woman at that. A person who had all their life still in front of them and perhaps had not done a single thing that would justify them dying at such young age.

And he had been the one to take her life.

Remulus tried to do something. Anything. But his body was frozen in place. His limbs wouldn't move at this revelation that he had killed another person for the first time. Still too much in shock he didn't register the cries of the cat demihuman behind him. He didn't feel the growing killing intent of the cat as it let out a ear piercing screeching wail as a response to its companion's brutal death. As he looked down at the bodyless legs that suddenly fell onto the dusty ground below, Remulus felt like throwing up.

His fingers twitched, finally releasing the hammer as it fell with a loud clattering sound to the ground. His lips quivered as a small whimpering sound escaped his throat subconciously, sounding like a dog. Looking down at his clawed fingers, he spotted small drops of blood having dried on his white fur. His hands were stained in blood.

'W-What have I done?' He thought to himself as he felt hot tears run down his eyes.

That was when suddenly a bright flash of light from behind almost blinded him. The intensive light was intensified by the Tears in his eyes, making it impossible for him to see properly for a moment. Within that time, something large swiped him away like a piece of dirt, throwing him into a wall. Hissing as a Little bit of pain shot through his spine, Remulus picked himself out of the wall as he looked at the being that stood before him.

Standing more than 3 meters in height was a creature that one could only call a monster in the purest sense of the world. Its body was covered by jet black fur and a pair of horns grew on the head like those of a demon. A pair of leathery wings like those of a dragon sat on the back. Sharp fangs peeked out of the closed mouth. Sharp claws were on every foot and the tail seemed to have large spikes like a mace.

From one second to another, the cat had suddenly become a massive monster. Remulus knew this kind of monsters. A creature that was mentioned first in the holy bible and related religions. A beast of gargantuan size, domintating the land, and at the apocalypse fighting its marine counterpart, the Leviathan. A behemoth. Usually pictured as the king of monsters in games or literature, Behemoths had been by no means foreign in YGGDRASIL. Looking like large cat like monsters, resembling a lion, the king of animals, and growing large horns on their head and their bodies. They were high level monsters in the game.

Remulus growled slightly as he picked himself out of the wall, brushing off the dust from his fur. Using [Life Essence] and [Mana Essence] he saw that the stats of the creature had sky rocketed, but other than a buff of his capabilities, Nothing had really changed. The large almost panther like creature glared at him with fury and bloodlust, though its eyes fell for a moment on Aria's dead body.

"I see. She actually meant quite a lot to you and you want revenge. I do understand that..." Remulus said, Looking down. The monster didn't understood what he said, yet it didn't interrupt him to speak. The kobold rose his arms again in front of him. "However... her death was the result of the attempt of you and your companions to take my life without any reason. An act of self-defense that had gone horribly wrong. Therefore the only one to blame for her death is herself and you and your companion for attacking me." Remulus looked up, determination flaring up in his eyes as he gave the Behemoth a look that said as much as "I don't give up."

The monster roared furiously at the kobold at this. The Behemoth ran towards Remulus as it tried to swipe him away with its claws only for the kobold to jump away. Unfortunately, in that moment the tail of the feline came towards the canine as a large blade made of pure energy had formed from the tip of the tail.

"What the-" Bringing up his arms too late, Remulus took the full hit of the blade as it cleaved through the walls and launched him away from the original battlefield. A hot, sharp pain shot through his chest as the blade actually managed to wound him as the blade went past his chest plate and hit hisleft shoulder. However, while it had cleaved without a problem through the walls of the dungeon, the wound was shallow, not even a centimeter deep. It still hurt though as the fur was stained with crimson blood. The behemoth knew that and walked after its opponent, leaving the room.

Meanwhile, the tigerfolk Vulcan, Aria's companion laid beneath a piece of rubble. The transformation of the cat that she had only known as the companion of Aria, the "Elemental Cat" Tama, had caused parts of the ceiling to collapse due to the rather narrow tunnels. She had witnessed the cat's transformation in shock. Of course, Vulcan had heard stories about the behemoths. Powerful and very rare S rank monsters, that were treated as living disaster and capable to alone destroy entire cities. Behemoths also varied a lot among one another unlike most other monsters. Each had a different set of skills and abilities, making fighting one of them rather suicidal as it was impossible to tell what kind of abilities they had unless they were studied and observed over a long time. That again would be rather difficult due to their sharp senses and their hostility.

Seeing that Tama himself was such a creature, but had the whole time been nothing more than a baby of this kind of monster was already mindblowing for the tigerfolk girl. However, right now she had worse trouble with getting the large boulders off her legs. Even though she had Incredible strength, even her powers had a Limit. She managed to move them just slightly as she pushed against them, but the fight against the werewolf like creature had robbed her off her strength.

Sadly she looked over to Aria's corpse. Her dead eyes looking away from Vulcan as she laid there mutilated. Hot tears shot into her eyes at this as she broke down into a sobbing mess. Once more, she lost a companion. Only this time, it had been through a monster killing them. All she could do now was to get out of there and hope that Tama would avenge her death. There would be time to grieve over Aria's death later.

* * *

*Boom* *Boom* *Boom* *Boom* *Boom* *Boom*

The sound of explosions echoed through the labyrinth's halls, causing the walls, ceiling and ground to shake. All monsters from slimes and goblins to minotaurs and orcs fled as they heard and felt all this. The thumping stomps of the beast responsible for this destruction in the distance were more than a clear sign for all these monsters, no matterow unintelligent they were, to flee just to not get caught in the crossfire between whatever was fighting there.

Remulus kept running through the labyrinth with the cat still hot on his tail. Shooting massive boulders, icicles and fireballs at the running kobold whenever the monster let out a thundering roar, the monk type player had to jump on walls and ceiling just to not get hit by the large projectiles. The behemoth didn't care. It was hell-bent on killing him and knocked aside anything in its path. Each stomp of the feline caused the ground to shake and it became for Remulus more like running away from a raging bull than an actual fight.

That was when he arrived at his destination. A large artrium like place that was much bigger than the room earlier. Here was enough space for them to fight. Stopping at the end, the kobbold looked at his opponent as the transformed Tama landed with little grace on his feet, growling at Remulus.

'It used up a lot of its mana reserves during that chase. Talk about a blind rage.' Remulus thought as he checked on Tama with his [Mana Essence] what earlier had been a large tornado of mana had now been reduced to only half its size. Too bad it didn't even hit once. Otherwise it would at least make up for what was to follow.

Remulus then took off his armor. In a flash it disappeared from his body into his inventory. The Behemoth's look changed from furious to confused. Why would this canine creature take off its armor?

"I know you can't understand me anyway, but I'll try just say it for the case that you do as you are clearly a sentient and intelligent being. As such, I'll show you my respeect as well as praise you for you have been the first one in this place to actually damage me." Remulus said tracing the horizontal cut on his shoulder, which had already closed again, leaving only clotted blood on the fur. "You have no armor, so I'll not fight you with any. You have no weapons, so I'll fight without any too. That way the scales are somewhat balanced. And since you buffed up with your transformation, I'll do the same, though I unfortunately don't really have a Transformation that turns me into a giant wolf." With that the kobold got into a stance as he began.

"[Greater Luck]. [Mantra of Patience]. [Acceleration]. [Fortress Walls]. [Higher Mind]. [Draconic Strength]." With each spell casted on himself, a different colored light shimmered across Remulus' body. Though the difference in strength between the two monsters was clear, he wanted to give this battle his all. Pulling his punches now would be like dissing his opponent. The behemoth seemed to have noticed the intensified aura around Remulus as well as it roared at him. Remulus smirked at that, clearly to the anger of the behemoth as he pulled up his arms, bearing his claws to the large cat like monster.

"You want to dance? Then let's dance."

The behemoth reared its head back and roared, unleashing once more a massive torrent of fire. The fire seemed to consume everything in its path as it left nothing uncharred. For a moment everything was engulfed in flames.

*Slash*

Tama roared out in pain as a large gash opened on his neck. The kobold had run through the flames to his underside to jump up and slash across his neck with a jump into the air. Landing on the ceiling, Remulus kicked it and launched himself at the Behemoth, who once again brandished his [Elemental Tail Sword], blocking the incoming blow just barely.

'Got you!' Tama thought as it used the tail to launch Remulus back into the air and unleashed another [Elemental Howl] at the airborne enemy. Flames engulfed Remulus, before he fell down the earth. 'I'm not through with you yet!' Tama shouted in his mind as he used the [Elemental Howl] again. This time large boulders flew at the kobold and buried him under rocks. The behemoth knew that he had not much time left in this form so he charged up his [Elemental Tail Blade] and swung the energy blade down on the pile of stone, cleaving it in half. The pile collapsed with a thundering sound as Tama stood before it.

For a moment he kept standing there, hoping that it was over. Since his [Divine Protection of the Lion King] had failed to protect him and his master from this werewolf like being, he couldn't be too careful. However, he had not that many options about what he could do. Either search in the pile for the kobold and risk to be attacked out of nowhere or staying here for an undefined amount of time to see if the monster has survived and come out to strike again. The wound on the neck was bad and his form had a time limit. The thought of his now dead master brought sadness back into his heart.

Never again would she greet him.

Never again would she place him on top of her cleavage as if it was the most normal thing in the world.

Never again would she pet him or kiss him.

And never again would he wake up to see Aria's peaceful face next to him on the bed in that room in the inn.

It was all gone now forever.

That was when one of the boulders was thrown right into Tama's face, causing the behemoth to stagger and stand up on his hind legs as the front legs held its injured nose. Tama's attack had missed Remulus, who had just waited for him to drop his guard. Quickly running underneath the behemoth, he quickly was behind the creature.

"You are pretty good. There is no doubt about it and I give you that. But!" Remulus said as he dashed up to the still dazed Behemoth. "Even you have some serious weaknesses. Like the fact that your sword only emerges from the tip of your tail!" With that Remulus slashed with his claws against the base of the tail. The black fur of Tama was tougher than steel, however before the power of a buffed up Level 100 Monk, the fur provided no protection as the appendage was severed.

Fountains of blood spurted out of the stump as it soiled the ground. Tama let out a pained roar much louder than before as it lost its balance and fell to the ground. Remulus landed on his own two feet and looked at his opponent, who gave him a hateful glare as it roared, shooting more flames at him. Remulus, grunted in pain as the torrent of flames washed over his body, scorching his fur slightly as he took more damage. When the flames dispersed he saw that the behemoth had used his wings to lift himself up into the sky. Then Tama came down with a mighty roar, slashing at Remulus with his giant claws.

Once again Remulus jumped up, but this time he didn't slash at Tama's throat. He instead aimed for Tama's right horn with a punch. The shockwaves, caused Tama's skull to shake as the horn broke off from the skull, leaving a nasty, bleeding stump. Once more the Behemoth received damaged and fell to the ground.

"It's over!" Remulus shouted. He grabbed the horn out of the air as he hit the ceiling and pushed himself from it down to his fallen opponent. Tama only got to lift his head slightly, before his own severed horn was plunged with full force into his nape, severing the head from the body as it was torn off by the force after 2 seconds in which the Behemoth only got to let out a last scream of pain.

Falling onto the ground, Remulus took a couple of deep breaths before he stood up again. Looking around him he saw the still slightly twitching body of his opponent and his severed head with its own horn shoved up the back of its head. His body ached slightly as he had apparently taken more damage than expected from some buffed up Level 50 Behemoth.

Too bad he had forgotten his potions in a chest inside a room in an inn in Midgard of YGGDRASIL. He hadn't thought that he would need any of that again, when the game would shut down. And unfortunately he had also nothing to eat anymore. The only way for him to restore HP without potions was through eating something thanks to a skill. He walked a little around the place. Each step stung a little. It was not really painful, but it was very uncomfortable. Not exactly top conditions to get back and head to the surface.

'Walking like that is going to be a pain. No, I'll not do that unless I want to take a break every hour. In that case, I'd be stuck down here forever. I have to heal my wounds and restore my HP first.' He thought as he looked around himself. The place was basically barren. Scorched rocks and cracked up stone was all this place had to offer. Well the only other thing than rocks was that behemoth's corpse. Remulus shook at this idea, but unfortunately he had not much of a choice. Walking up to the dead body, he bowed his head slightly.

"I feel really sorry for what happened, but I will be even more sorry for what I am about to do now. If I don't, your death will be just in vain. Rest in peace." Remulus said, putting his hands together in a silent prayer for those he had killed.

After a short moment of silence he stopped praying as he brought his claws down on the corpse.

* * *

One day later

"Hey have you heard?"

"What?"

"That elf girl Aria and her cat were apparently killed by a werewolf in the labyrinth."

"What? Why would there be a werewolf down there? Don't they usually live out in the woods?"

"Still only Vulcan returned back to the guild, bringing back Aria's tag."

"Damn! That must hurt a lot."

"A shame really. Aria looked really nice. Would have loved to make a move if it wasn't for that cat."

"Yeah, shame it got both of them and not only that cat."

As these two adventurers were drinking in the guild, which was since the message of Aria's death thrown into a gloomy state, Vulcan had returned to her shop. She wasn't sure why Tama had not come back yet, but she couldn't have followed him after that werewolf. She at least had to bring Aria's tag back and her condition would have made her too weak to fight against the other monsters deeper in the labyrinth. In the end, she could only preserve her own life by trusting Tama to kill that monster on his own. After all, he was a behemoth, the strongest kind of monster.

At the same time at the entrance of the labyrinth, a couple of guards made sure that only adventurers entered the dungeon so that tourists and civilians wouldn't find their way down there by accident. Both guards wore simply steel armor and both held a shield, while a sword was sheated on their belts. The guard of Maze City was not only taking care of the dungeon entrance however. They were positioned on the walls and on the streets on patrols to prevent hostilities between the people and keeping adventurers in check so that they would start to cause a ruckus.

"There has been a rumor. Have you heard?" One of them asked the other.

"About that elf that died?" The other asked. The first one shook his head.

"No. The last patrol said that they saw a monster walking around the streets in the western district in the laste evening."

"What? That's absurd. We keep always guard and not a single monster has made it past us. Surely someone would have noticed that."

"Yeah, but they said that it looked mostly like a human girl. When they tried to question her, she disappeared. But not by running through the alleys."

"Then how?"

"They said that she was running up the wall as if she was somehow holding herself onto it." The first one said as the second one laughed.

"Oh that's just silly. You know that nothing could climb up those walls like that."

"I don't know. In my room in the inn has been this big spider, that has been hanging on the ceiling ever since I moved in."

"Yeah, but there are no such monsters in that dungeon from what I know. The only Thing I could think off being able to scale our walls without getting shot down first would be a wyvern. And those are living pretty much down below. No chance that they ever get out of here." The second guard said. The first one sighed and leaned against the wall behind him as he tried to relax.

That was when they heard a low growl from within the dungeon.

"Did you just hear that?" The first guard asked.

"Bah! That was probably just someone's stomach. You are young and worry too much boy. Learn some self-control or go back to your mommy." The second guard said, though the hair on his nape was standing up as well as he sweated like crazy. That was when suddenly two arms covered in gray yellow fur emerged from the entrance and their hands with clawed fingers grabbed the sides of the entrances, crushing both guards instantly. People gasped or screamed in terror as something large emerged from the dungeon.

The creature looked like a wolf, but it sported two curved horns on its temples alongside a straight one on the forehead. Not to mention its large size as it easily overshadowed the humans below it. For m Moment it stood perfectly still, growling at the people around it as yellow eyes narrowed at them. Then it let loose a roar and everything was engulfed in flames, burning everyone unfortunate enough into ashes.

The people quickly fled alongside low ranked adventurers as high rank adventurers and guards ran to the scene to fight the monster. But its body even though covered in fur was hard and sturdy, making blades and arrows break upon contact and spells thrown at it simply bounced off without any effect. Standing up on its hindlegs and bearing its claws, the creature gave a howl, before slashing at the gathered force of adventurers and guards. The claws simply tore through armor and flesh like a hot knife through butter. Within moment, dozens of lives of the city's elite were lost.

Once it had finished off this prey and devoured a few of them, it forced its way into the streets, knocking down buildings and crushing people beneath its Hands and feet as it continued its blind rampage.

Vulcan herself recognized the creature immediately as she looked outside of her workshop into the distance as she heard the roar. When the wolf like being stood up again on its hind legs to breath a torrent of fire out of its mouth like a dragon, she was back in the dungeon yesterday. She knew was this meant. Tama had died as well. Tears streamed down her face as she grabbed her hammer and armor as she ran to join the fight so that Aria and Tama's death would not be for naught.

Vulcan was never seen again ever since.

Hours passed as people quickly evacuated the city and the gates and canals were sealed shut to keep the monster inside as the guards planned to attack it from the walls above. But that didn't stop the wolf to devour the people of Maze City like sheep trapped in their stalls. When the cries became silent, the creature went through a horrible transformation that made even the most battle hardened soldier among them shudder in fear.

Standing almost majestically in midst all that destruction and fire, the creature was completely unharmed as it suddenly grew leathery wings on its back like a dragon. Now capable of flight, the monster took to the skies above the ruins of the city and killed those on top of the walls. Towers meant to withstand the armies to conquer the city collapsed as they were destroyed. Their debris either fell inside the walls on top of the edge of the city, where some people were still hiding or outside, killing off the guards and People that had been evacuated.

Landing on the walls, the creature looked around the surroundings of the city as if it was searching for somthing. Sniffing the air it then reared its head back.

"AAAARRRRROOOOOOOOOWWWWW." A loud and long howl escaped the monster's throat, before it jumped off the wall right towards a group of gathered people. They cried out in horror as they cowered before the falling wolf, but before it hit the ground it spread both wings and swooped harmlessly over them as it took to the sky once more and flew of into the distance.

A certain cloaked harpy at the edge of a forest not far away from the city watched the winged wolf flying off with a feeling of dread crawling up her guts.

* * *

In the days and months following the fall of Maze City, the creature was reported to be seen throughout the land on several places as it was always on the move. Never staying for long and always devouring member of both monsters and humanoid races. The locals sometimes even launched large campaigns to subjugate the monster that was spreading terror across the land. Unfortunately, not a single soldier ever returned alive and only the mutilated bodies of hundreds and thousands were found.

Even plans of luring dangerous monsters under the sacrifice of both adventurers and loyal soldiers to the beast failed as the wolf like monster killed and devoured all other monsters it came across. It restlessly roamed the land, always looking for new prey and even Behemoths and dragons, which had been seen as the pinnacle of all monsters became nothing more than skeletons stripped to the bones.

As it roamed the land, destroyed villages and cities alike and devoured all beings in its way it was given the name Apex as wherever it went it established itself on the top of the local food chain. Others called it a chimera as reports state that it is able to grow not only scales and wings, but also tentacles and fins as it could apparently copy the abilities of other monsters.

Until the day that no one would remember it anymore, the people told the tale of this monster that had emerged from the dungeon and leveled the city around it, before heading out and roaming the land until this day.

* * *

OC Profile

Name: Remulus

Epithet: Canine Brawler, The Hunter, Apex, Chaotic Chimera

Race: Kobold

Gender: Male

Biography: Honor was something that Remulus had always valued even if the world around him was a place drowning in crimes and corruption. It was a virtue he always sought out and it kept him working in that broken world of 2136. That plus his family were the anchorage he had in the world. Other than that, he only found some joy in YGGDRASIL by fighting strong enemies. It was basically like hunting for sport. After his transition he still held on to his ideals as he fought other monsters and ultimately Aria and her party.

Unfortunately, this encounter changed everything for him. In the aftermath of his fight with Tama, the Behemoth, after he had accidentally killed Aria, Remulus began to devour Tama's corpse as he needed to heal his wounds and recover his HP. However, eating the behemoth's flesh had some drastic changes as a consequence.

Legends often told the tale of heroes obtaining miraclous powers through their deeds. And some of them even obtained them by eating the flesh of a beast they had slain like the legend of Siegfried, the Dragon Slayer, who gained the power to speak to animals after licking the blood of Fafnir, the dragon he had slain from his fingers, immensive strength after eating the dragon's heart and rock hard skin after bathing in its blood.

In the moment Remulus fully devoured the corpse of Tama, the behemoth's unique racial skill [Skill Predation] was transmitted to Remulus, just like Tama had preyed on other monsters and gained their abilities. However, the skill that Remulus used to heal himself by eating [Gluttony Frenzy] had a certain downside. There was a relatively low chance that the user would go into a mindless rage like state similiar to skill of the Berserk class.

His new body had not only enhanced senses, but also the nature of a predator. When his rational human mind shut down due to the skill, this beastial side was unleashed. First this primal version of Remulus stripped Tama's corpse to the bones, before he headed deeper inside the dungeon, killing every monster he encountered. Once at the deepest part where Tama had killed the earth dragon, the kobold headed upwards to the surface again, seeking new prey. The Frenzy state would keep being active as long as Remulus would find something to eat as in the game the skill would simply have used up food items within the inventory of the player. This skill combined with his new found power and the nature of his race sealed the end of many lives as the kobold would keep looking for prey elsewhere even when one place was hunted empty.

* * *

**And the morale of the story is, when you are some sort of bestial demihuman, you really shouldn't get a skill that basically turns you into a monster with the appetite and nomadic mindset of a deviljho from Monster Hunter.**

**Also for those in the review section, would you please be polite enough to NOT ask me to continue Chthonian Infernalis in the sections of other stories? Is that really too much to ask? I get it. I really do. There are a lot of stories I want to continue. But that new chapter for Cththonian Infernalis just isn't finished yet, so you'll excuse me for not publishing a bad hastly written chapter instead of one that has taken a long time to write to make it at least fit into the plot.**


	4. Chapter III: Web of Intrigue

Chapter III: Web of Intrigue (Grancrest Senki)

* * *

There is an old legend that everyone on the continent of Atlatan knows. Long ago in the Chaotic Age when vampires and werewolves first appeared in the world, mankind was driven to the brink of extinction by an enemy no army in the world could actually defeat.

Chaos, the malevolent force that is the root of all that is supernatural such as magic in the world and allows demons and monsters to trespass into the world, which attack the people, had the upper hand. The enemy came in many shapes and forms, each stronger and more monstrous than the last, and mankind barely managed to hold their ground against this force with a seemingly unlimited number of minions, each stronger than any ordinary man. A vicotry against Chaos meant nothing as every day people were killed in the hundreds and chaos calamities made the land uninhabitable. Each small victory was overshadowed by the fact that they couldn't truly win and people knew that.

But then there came someone who shed light into the darkness.

His name was Leon.

He was the first lord as he was the first to obtain the power of a crest.

A crest was a powerful magic symbol, that had the power to purge the chaos from the world. With the power of the crest, which were now seen as holy seals, mankind managed to push back the forces of Chaos and increased their own territory. The crests themselves became a very important part of the social structure of the human civilization. They were now seen as a symbol of the rulers of each territory and so it was not surprising that later all of them on Atlatan had a crest. The lords became the actual ruling caste of society and the older noble system faded into the background.

The lords rose to fame and power, claimed lands and ruled the ordinary people in them. A crest gained power from absorbing Chaos, causing a ranking system to be developed and established. The bigger and more complex a crest, the higher was the rank. They could also absorb the crests of others and split to lesser crests to give others power. As such crests were normally inherited from the lord to their heir to keep the crest within the family.

However, this was not essentially a good development. With the threat of Chaos gone or at least pushed out of the view of the people, mankind turned against one another, waged wars to conquer territory in the name of their lords and increase the influence of the lords. It was no longer the fight for pure survival, but to satisfy the greed of those that wanted even more power. Where many had mourned over the countless deaths of the people they lost during the Chaotic Age, people now accepted their role as nothing more than expandable soldiers that fought and died in their duty.

What no one knew was that Leon had not been alone when he pushed back the chaos. He had an entire company of warriors and mages that followed him into battle. One man alone couldn't fight an army of demonic monsters, that turned humans into minced meat within a heartbeat after all. A crest may increased the physical traits of a fighter such as reaction time, strength, speed and durability, depening on the crest, however they didn't make it possible to kill an entire army with a single strike of a sword. And of Course, there was the support of the people as well as armies marched to cleanse the land of the Chaos. Yes, the Age of Great Chaos was indeed a bloody and brutal time compared to the situation centuries later when the continent had entered a more peaceful state.

And among these companions Leon had, who fought alongside him at the front against Chaos, one of them was neither human, vampire or werewolf. It was a monster... Or rather that is what myths made her later.

The story of "The Spider Woman" was not a very popular tale and was soon forgotten after it first had come into being. The story began with a noble heir, who fell in love with a young woman from the countryside. Their relation wasn't seen as good by the prince's father and thus the woman was to be exiled. She however was already pregnant with the heir's child and the young man, even after being married and starting a family as the new head of the territory, longed to see her.

One day when hunting, he noticed that there were less animals in the forest. He came across an old house in the woods and saw a monster. About the size of a child it looked like a human girl up the waist, but her lower half was a spider. The king and his knights killed the creature in panic and set the house on fire. That was when later a familiar woman appeared in the town. But she was more than furious to see her child killed and her home burned to the ground as she transformed before the eyes of the noble into a being half woman, half spider herself.

She slaughtered everyone in that town and when people from the neighboring territory and merchants traveling through the territory, they found only the ruins of a city that was burnt to ist foundations. The creature was said to have returned to its lair, where it buried its child and cried ever since.

Until this day, one could hear her weeping voice in the woods in full moon nights.

...

It wasn't all made up, but it was horribly incorrect and romantized in favor of the noble and human audience of course. If people had actually known what had happened, most people would feel their stomach twist into a knot when hearing or reading it.

* * *

A beautiful melody rang through the depths of a vast forest in the middle of the night. Soft and harmonic tunes were carried with the cool air in this cloudy spring night. The temperature was not very high, which would make most people in light clothing shake in the cold. And yet someone seemed to enjoy the calm of the night very well. So much to take out their violin and start playing.

The leaves of the last fall still covered the ground, making it hard for low vegetation to take root in such a place. Here and there were already some ferns and some bushes already carried green leaves once more, but it was simply too dark down at the bottom for most plant life.

The high trees sometimes got interrupted by clearings in the forest. Here was enough light for smaller trees and bushes to take root. However, the clearing was devoid of any plant life, because it wasn't natural. Inside of it stood tents of simple cloth and wooden sticks as pillars as well as some torches, but none of them was lit. In the middle of the camp was a larger tent made of crimson cloth adored with golden ornaments. It had two torches in front of its entrance and it was about twice the size of the normal ones. Inside a normal tent it seemed like 5 to 7 person could sleep inside, depending on their individual height and width. The ground was simply soil as the campers must have removed all plant life to put their camp here. The camp itself counted about 40 of normal tents making the total number of people in it about 200 to 280.

However even though this camp was extraordinary large, there was no sound in itself. Only the melody in the wind rang through the air. No fluttering of a bird's wings. No sound of a cricket chirping. Not even a snoring of sleeping people. In fact, the only thing that showed still slightly human activity recently were the torches and fire places, that still held embers glowing in an orange-red color beneath the pale gray ashes of the burnt wood.

The melody however did not come from the camp itself. It came from within the forest. There was no real road in this place, making it really hard to traverse in this place if one was unlucky to not be walking on even ground. Roots of trees could make a man fall painfully over them and tumble down holes which would be hard to climb out due their steep edges, sometimes leading 5 to 7 meters into the depths, where water from rainfalls or simply ground water gathered, making it a muddy pit. And yet if one looked closely enough one could see the broken twigs and branches of trees and bushes on a makeshift way through this forest, leading from the camp deeper into the woods. Only a few hundred meters further came another clearing.

But unlike the other it was filled with death.

The corpses of soldiers and mercenaries were piled up at the edges. All men still wore light metal armor, most of them only a bucket like helmet with a visor to protect the eyes, a small chest plate as well as bracers for arms and legs. Some didn't even have armor at all and were clad in now stained crimson cloth shirts and leather pants. They ranged in age from mid 20s to 40s and 50s. Some bore scars of previous fights, while others had tribal tattoos on their skin and others again had no such features.

For a mighty lord these people might as well be well trained and organized bandits, but they wouldn't have been a real threat to their estate. It where the mortal remains of the army of a noble with only small territory and wealth in this region. A few days earlier he had received the message that people started disappearing in his territory. Rumors of Chaos spreading in his territory came up. Though the lord couldn't have cared less about the lives of the peasants beneath him, they were still the reason why he had wealth in the first place. Also a Chaos Calamity was nothing to laugh at. Quickly he organized a band of mercenaries alongside his own forces and set out with them to find the source and destroy it. They went to the village that had been attacked first, which now was a ghost town. After traveling to the village for 3 hours and looking the entire remaining day for any clues that could have helped to identify what they were dealing with the lord had ordered his troops to rest and resume the search on the next day. Unfortunately for them, they didn't survive the night.

In the middle of this ring of corpses stood the violinist and kept playing, ignoring or simply not minding the smell of blood and death. Dressed in a black suit and a mask with only two holes for the eyes covering the face, while only the black, short hair was visible. The masked individual kept playing its violin while once or twice twirling on the head of the black shoes like a dancer caught in the melody of the violin. A dance dedicated to the death of all these dozens of men.

Not far from the violinist stood another creature at the top of one of the trees. The lower body was that of a spider, covered in chocolate brown fur like a tarantula. The upper body was that of a human woman clad in a dark robe. Her hair was long and blonde as it fell over her shoulders to her waist like a waterfall made of golden silk. With the face of a young woman and slightly elfish ears she looked like she had jumped out a fairytale. Her eyes were closed as she listened to the music made by the beneath. Her spider legs swayed a little to the music as if she wanted to dance, but restrained herself a little.

When she opened her eyes the two pink eyes gazed at the almost completely decreasing crescent moon, that hung in the night sky and only threw little light upon this world, before turning her gaze to her left hand where a dark violet symbol appeared hovering only a few centimeters over the back of her hand.

It was shaped like a spider with long legs and fangs. Fitting for the arachne as its bearer.

* * *

_Later_

The last rays of sunlight peaked through the clouds, before they were snuffed out as well. A cool breeze for this time of the year flew through the foliage of the forest as the clouds kept gathering in the horizon. In the distance the first silent lights of the coming thunderstorm could be seen if one would climb up the trees, but even so the air pressure had already fallen a lot as Shizuku was wandering through the forest. The arachne didn't really care for any onlookers as no one was there. The forest once had belonged to some noble in the east of the continent, that had its residence, a small mansion here. Well now it was devoid of any human life at all after Shizuku happened. But that was not important for her. She simply kept going, always watching the forest around her while her eight legs simply walked over any obstacles, that might make a human to trip. Ever since her body had become a monster a lot of time had passed, giving her more than enough time to adapt to her new legs. At first she had been tripping over her own legs or had only moved instinctively and thus tripping over something or stepping into some things that are better left unsaid. That was all in the past however, as Shizuku had grown into a full-fledged arachne on her own. With her enhanced senses she was able to pick up sounds and movements of nearby creatures very easily. Even an owl that made no sound when flying through the night was still picked up by her senses.

Not once in so many years had she been seen by a single human soul and those that did hadn't live long enough to tell others about the Arachne. Unfortunately, this was necessary. The only supernatural things in this world were either familiars of magicians or were associated with Chaos, a malevolent force that threatened mankind on this world from the ancient past to the present day. Therefore, she was seen as a monster that needed to be killed as well.

She didn't care for that anymore. In fact, she became what the people called her. The people called her a monster and she gave them what they asked for. However, she didn't want to have an army of soldiers coming after her like a group of hunters after a fleeing deer. Dealing all that would be rather troublesome.

Finally, she arrived at a place that she could call home. She stood in front of a large tree. Notable about this one was obvious large rock the tree had trapped with its roots basically hugging it like a doorframe. A fitting metaphor as the stone itself was a door. Pressing her hand against the rock it moved itself a bit backwards and then to the side, revealing a large, round hole leading down beneath the earth. The arachne climbed inside before the rock returned to its original position.

It was pitch-black down there as there was no such thing as a torch or lamp. But even in this darkness she could see clear as day. The tunnel was roughly the size of a normal human, making Shizuku lean forward to even move in it. She scrambled with her legs through the dirt, always moving forward, until she reached a larger chamber about 3 meters beneath the surface. She had some wooden stands with various glass jars here, a small desk, a net made of her own silk to rest upon and even a fireplace with the coal and ashes of the last time was present. Light was produced from small gems, painting the room in a cool, yet welcoming azure light. It was not much nor was too cheap to live in.

The reason why the arachne lived under such conditions was due her past that even preceeded the time she went into conflict with the humans. Shizuku was not born as an Arachne, but as a human and her being half spider was not due a curse or a surgical attempt to stitch her back together after she lost her lower half.

Shizuku Homura had been a player of the DMMORPG YGGDRASIL. Unlike most heteromorphs she didn't want to bother people with her being in their guild and had therefore a hard time in the game as well as in real life.

In the final moments of the game she managed to clear a dungeon, but just as she had slain the last boss the clock struck midnight and with that everything had changed. Because the dungeon was only cleared, but not conquered as she had no real right to call it so without being part of a guild.

She had been scared. She had been confused. But most importantly she had been down there all alone. She was just there in this empty room where she had slain the last boss. When she ventured to the surface the monsters around her kept their distance, but the boss didn't respawn no matter how much time passed or how many times she visited the dungeon. The only reason the mobs didn't attack her was because they knew that they couldn't win against her. They had felt the difference in their power very clearly as Shizuku didn't really hid it back then.

And once she had managed to climb out the dungeon she knew she was no longer on Earth as she came face to face with a clear sky and warm rays of sunlight.

As a solo player she also had not many items or gold in comparison to other players who were playing in guilds. Everything she had in this small lair was made by herself. From the very construction underground to the last piece of furniture, all had been crafted with her own two hands and her eight legs. With her not being able to interact with humans in a peaceful way she simply had to do things on her own after all.

While Shizuku lived a humble life on her own, she never got bored. Her work mostly consisted of one thing: alchemy. She used it to transmute earth and dirt into metals and tools, she could repair broken things to some extend as well as making potions from YGGDRASIL. Of course the local flora and fauna were not fitting for that, but she had a supply that kept her stock of ingredients full. Sometimes she created golems just to carry out simple tasks. It was no different from buying a Roboter to vaccum your room or one to mow your lawn really.

And then there was her form of company.

The form of a creature came from beneath her desk as a large angora rabbit came out walked over to Shizuku. The creature was about the same size as a medium sized dog, which is already unusually big for this type of rodent. This Spear Needle was a quite strong mob of the game, but also a very precious companion for Shizuku ever since it had been born from its parents, a descendant of the ancestors that she had tamed in the game. This one however was not even fully grown yet as an adult was bigger than 2 meters in height.

While Shizuku had no other players to assist her in her quest, some day some cyclops player she had no more the recollection off what their name was or how they looked like safe for the one eye pearing through a helmet with exactly one hole to look through gave her some pets. Shizuku had no idea whether it was meant as a joke or if this person was pitying her for no one wanted to party up with her, but she gladly accepted the tamed monsters. And alongside her game avatar, her pets turned into real beings as well. With them she didn't felt that alone anymore as well as she had some friends who helped her. Only few of them were actually still those from YGGDRASIL as they still aged and died unlike her, if a tamed monster was not falling into the category of the heteromorphic races like for example dragons, demons or slimes or didn't belong to an immortal kind of creature. They were descendants who were bred for keeping their species at least alive. She doubted that she could actually manage to populate the world with those guys when humans and chaos were around the world and both didn't exactly go kindly on foreigners or the unknown.

While petting her rabbit, Shizuku sat down on her net as she felt a wave of tiredness wash over her. She had been up all night to ambush her attackers with that decoy of her and now she needed to sleep. She had not turned nocturnal or anything and her stamina was much higher than that of her old human life. However, the last 4 days she had been traveling across the woods of the continent, killing both demons and humans that were too unfortunate to cross her path and that was tiring.

The rabbit seemed to disagree as it climbed up the net and tried to make the Arachne wake up again, but Shizuku simply hugged the little creature to her chest. Eventually both drifted into sleep.

* * *

_Dream_

It was raining. It was raining as if someone had turned on the water wells of the heavens. The sight on the streets had turned slightly unclear as heavy wind was creating a thick curtain of water in the streets. Those people that were outside were because they had to. No one wanted to be out at such a weather. Rather sitting on a desk and working overtime or standing next to a band instead of being out here now.

Shizuku was one such person. One young girl in the crowd of hundreds of people. Her gas mask hung over her face, protecting it from the rain. Standing outside here was anything, but safe. As the pollution of Earth had turned so sever the water in the atmosphere reacted with the sulfur dioxide and carbon dioxide to sulfur acid and carbon acid. Both created a toxic and corrosive cocktail that bleached clothes, ate through concrete and rust as well as damaging organic tissue it came in contact with.

Around her the people were pushing each other through the streets without her being able to actually make out where she was. She bumped into people left and right, earned insults and hits. An elbow hit her in the face, knocking her to the ground. Still she stood up again and fought her way through the crowd to the edge of the sidewalk.

She found an alley, leading most likely into the more slum like parts of the city. It was somewhat protected from the wind and acid rain as it only managed to drop down from above in droplets through the holes in makeshift lead roofs roof of shabby huts. This was the world she was born into. The hell on Earth of the 22nd century.

And all she wished for was for the nightmare to end.

She walked through the alley, readjusting the gas mask on her face as she tasted iron on her tongue. Probably from her nose when that person elbowed her in the face. Shizuku finally managed to arrive at a house that she had lived in with her parents and saw that the door had been broken open with most likely a crowbar.

Her heart seemed to have travelled into her throat as she pushed open the door… and was greeted by another nightmare. Her parents laying on the ground in pools of their own blood. The furniture of the apartment smashed apart into splinters. She still walked in as glass shards and other things covered the ground. And then the door closed behind her with a booming sound, making everything dark.

* * *

_Reality_

With a yelp Shizuku woke up as she sat up straight. The sudden movement made the rabbit jump up in surprise as well, before calming itself down once more. Shizuku panted as she felt her temperature rising, yet a cold shudder run up her spine. After a moment she sighed and laid back down.

She was no longer this little girl that once had been pushed around and kicked on the ground. She had stopped being that person a long time ago. To be specific she stopped being that person when all she had left was taken from her.

"Tch! Stupid dreams…" She muttered to herself as she stood up. "Oh right. Today is that wedding." Shizuku said to herself.

Back in the days the level of Chaos was higher, demons and calamities were no rare occasions. There was always something new horrible coming down on the people. One could imagine how depressing it must have been for those that had to live under such conditions. When she was part of Leon's party, she had seen a lot of suffering.

What the people did not knew anymore was that in the past it was not only the humans, werewolves and vampires of their time that managed to beat the demon lords. No, their power had been insufficient against them even when using the power of the crests. There had been another party that got involved. One that had been forgotten over time by the ignorance of the other races. One that was not of their world. One that never forgot nor forgave. And that party was Shizuku herself. She had sacrificed so much and got kicked out in the end after having fought tooth and nail to achieve peace for the people of this world.

She easily could just have laid back and watch mankind die. With her powers it would have been more than easy to survive on her own. But she didn't. Her Soul was still human and clung to whatever humanity was left in her heart. And so even when revealing her true nature to the others, she fought alongside the others to safe the world and pushed back the demons that clawed on mankind's doorstep.

And what was her reward? Exile and all her deeds being forgotten forever. She was lucky that Leon at least had been reasonable enough to allow her to be left alone until she'd be out of the country. That was the Prize she had to pay for the Peace she had helped to enable. More like she was exploited to bring this new era about.

However, the situation she left couldn't be called peace the slightest bit. As the fight against Chaos seemed to have been won, fights between the humans broke out and escalated in dimensions yet unknown to them. The crests became symbols of the nobles and turned due their immense powers into tools of their personal wars for power.

At some point in time the war between the Fantasy Alliance and the Union broke out. Actually Shizuku haad been there when These nations formed and began to wage war against one another just because the original leaders were not immortal and their successors couldn't keep their greed in check alongside their subordinate lords. While the Alliance controlled the western territories of the continent, the Union was controlling the east. A long and bloody war was what followed until one day the prince of the alliance fell in love with the princess of the union without them knowing of each other's social standing.

The fairytale was almost too good to be true. If both families were to combine, the people would only have been a step away from achieving a fusion of all crests into one holy symbol of hope to purge all chaos from the continent.

The nobles of this world possessed different ranks of course like they did in the distant past of Earth. However, the rank here was more than a word written on a document or a title to boast with for deeds done by the ancestors. The noble ranks of the people of this world was also connected to their crests. A crest was basically a free ticket to nobility, which was also the reason why people killed one another for them. The lowest rank of nobles was the Esquire. They had no right to possess territory, but as bearers of a crest had already a higher social status than the common folk. Their crests were the smallest and simplest of all.

Following the Esquire came the ranks of Knight, Baron, Viscount, Earl or Count, Margrave, Marquees, Duke, Archduke and finally the Emperor.

Of course there was no such thing as an united Empire of Man on this world and had never been in its entire history from what she had known. Not even during the Chaotic Age, people just couldn't put aside their differences and rather were independent nations and made taxes high to make money out of the misery of people. Nothing against independence and wealth, but what good does it do when your nation is overrun by demons and monsters because you don't have enough people to combat it?

As long as the Union and Alliance fought tooth and nail to claim dominance over the entire continent there would be no truly united continent, which was why the so called Grancrest has never come into existence ever since the appearances of crests, but the Mages Association confirmed that theoretically the fusion of all these strong crests would possess the power to purge the entire continent from Chaos. Yes it was all just in the theory, but people had high hopes for it.

If these two families would really pull through with the wedding, they might be able to achieve it.

And Shizuku had a frontline seat for this spectacle. She was not going to the city of course. The effort to hide and watch would be too much and most likely not worth it. Though she couldn't say she wouldn't enjoy the festival itself if she could go there. It had been so long since she had gone to a town to enjoy such things. The last time must have been at least a decade in the past already. So instead of doing that, she went to her desk and grabbed a scroll that was placed there. Magic Scrolls that contained spells for later use were no rarity in YGGDRASIL as they could be used in strategic battles to catch an opponent off-guard in a moment they didn't expected to be hit by a spell. In the game off course things had been different from how they were now, but it was good to have at least some tricks in your sleeves. The arachne threw the scroll into the air.

"[Crystal Monitor]." She said as the scroll burst into blue flames, consuming the paper completely. In the next moment a magical picture was projected in the air. It was as if looking through a window or on a screen. There were bands of silk hanging from the ceiling down into the great hall, giving it a much more elegant touch than the dull greatness of the church like room.

She had been there in the past, which was the reason why she was able to project this picture in the first place. The great hall in Silica had already existed when Shizuku had arrived in this world and it stood when she pushed back the forces of Chaos alongside the others. She had been there in disguise as a human as well as having met allies there in secret during the Chaotic Age. She hadn't placed a foot into that building let alone the city for centuries, yet she still recognized the city just like when she had first seen it from the back of a wagon. Full of childish awe she had looked up the tall towers and majestic ornaments on the buildings.

Now she just wanted everything to burn.

The alabaster towers, the decorative ornaments and especially that mage association that owned the city and was acting like they owned magic itself as they had as much politicial power as the lords themselves. In fact, only very few people learned magic outside of the association and not all people could learn it much unlike the tier based magic from YGGDRASIL, that basically everyone could learn with enough time.

And to be honest, Shizuku didn't quite like the mage association. Well she didn't like mankind as a whole, but those people were the worst kind of people. They were taking talented children, that may have just awakened their power or got it after a tragic incident, from their actual parents only to raise and train them themselves and make them the helping hands of lords across the entire continent. In the past she had actually killed quite a lot of those people for dragging screaming and crying children from their parents, who could just stan there watching as they couldn't do anything against them. No one should ever try something like that when she was around. And as for those who did... well let's say they won't need to go to their hair stylists anytime soon. Or their opticians.

But back to the grand hall in the city of Silica.

The room was filled to the brim with people. Nobles in fancy clothes from both nations and probably prominent guests. Shizuku wanted to roll her eyes at this. These people really were the worst. Boot licking, lecherous, arrogant and power hungry. All of them. That was a thing, that had not changed in decades and centuries and probably never would, given the fact that she had seen the same scene on her world as well. It made her feel disgusted about the people and herself as well since she had been human herself.

It was in mankind's very nature to be selfish and ignorant of the whereabouts of other beings. Traits that mankind called sinful, evil and corrupted, yet they embodied and performed them more than any other creature that ever existed. Probably since humans had been the sentient race she had known for the longest time and not even the werewolves and vampires of this world were that prideful. In fact, the other races were in minority to mankind.

The ones, that this audience was licking the boots of, stood before a large globe of Chaos. It officially was some kind of relic of a lot of both historical and traditional value for the mage association. It had been there already for centuries and even before her, but Shizuku knew exactly what that thing was. Did it bother her? Nope.

The two men were in their 40s or 50s. They were the archdukes and thus the leaders of the two nations.

Mathias Kreische of the Factory Alliance, who controlled the east of Atlatan, was an older looking man with long white hair as he wore something that reminded the arachne of a black version of the ropes and head of a pope. The man wore a pair of round glasses on his nose and looked quite friendly. He was also the father of the bride, Marrine Kreische.

Facing him was Sylvester Deux of the Fantasia Union, who controlled the west. He also had long hair, though his was blonde and a short beard grew on the lower half of his face. Wearing a white suit along with a white cape he gave off the impression of a stereotypical mediveal king to the arachne. He was the father of the groom, Alexis Deux.

Then some announcer yelled something, given how wide he opened his mouth and the two archdukes turned to the entrance. [Crystal Monitor] was only able to project pictures, but no sounds. The door to the room opened and all people turned around from the archdukes to the doors to see the main cast of this big event. Walking inside the room were the groom and the bride.

Alexis Deux a Young man in his 20s with long blonde hair tied into a ponytail and violet colored eyes. Marrine Kreische was a Beautiful Young Woman about the same age with blue eyes and like her Groom long blonde hair as well, which she however wore open as the Long bangs framed her face and ended at shoulders.

Both were clad in white clothes, a suit for the groom and an elegant dress with a hat for the bride. It sure was different from the modern weddings Shizuku knew where the groom was supposed to not see the bride before the ceremony, but other countries meant other rites. And that was even more accurate when it came to other worlds.

Both groom and bride approached the altar where the fathers of the couple already waited, but before they were even halfway up to the platform suddenly a blonde woman with a braid was jumping on the stage. On her hip was a white wand with a blue sphere in front of the handle.

"Ho? A student of the magic academy?" Shizuku thought loud. Nobles had the right to form a contract with a mage of the association as their personal advisors and supporters as nobles usually were incapable of using other forms of magic than their crests. Of course there were strict rules that the association kept up to not let the nobles monopolize the association as their personal lapdog.

However, all nobles had such a mage at their side to help the nobles with their decisions. In Shizuku's opinion it was foolish to do such a thing as it made the nobles grow dependent on the magic of the mages and was only enhancing their own incompetence when they had such advisors, that took care of most organization and planning. In some sense Shizuku saw the Mage Association as the actual puppeteers behind the curtains. The reason why the arachne knew about that was that she had met and killed a lot of these mages. Most of them had been seasoned in the battle against demons and veterans of their magical arts, but not even them could pierce through her carapace.

The couple was confused as were all other people in the room as well as the girl drew her wand, but before being able to say something or swing her wand she was grabbed from behind by a young man with platinum blonde hair, dark skin and red eyes.

'How thoughtful of them to bring a shadow to the wedding as a bodyguard. And a well-trained one at that. Not bad gentlemen. Not bad at all.' The arachne thought. Shadow was simply a very fancy term for highly trained assassins. Trained for assassination, sabotage and information gathering in enemy territory, while staying completely concealed. The basics that all assassins should be capable of doing when being hired by a noble. Their methods were good, but Shizuku was better. No matter how much a shadow had tried in the past to conceal their presence from her, she had always found and killed them, before any information about her could be sent further to other people that would be hard to track down.

'But by the way it looked she is not the threat.' Shizuku thought to herself as she looked over to where the girl was looking. And there she saw it. The globe of chaos was first only barely noticeably gathering dark energy, but now it was no longer in wisps and embers. Instead a heavy wind kicked up as the wisps of dark energy turned into streams that gathered at the globe. The bride's hat flew off and into the dark voice as suddenly the world exploded.

Around the altar a sphere appeared, enveloping the entire part in the back. Inside were the two archdukes and something far bigger and far more fearsome than the two nations' leaders. Shizuku's eyes widened as she recognized the thing that emerged from the darkness. It was a large female figure with curved horns on the head, pointing forward, and two large bat like wings on the back. The figure was naked with only her long purple hair covering her breasts as she had her arms wrapped around the handle of a giant sword with a reptilian eye on its handle, about as large as herself. Below the tip one could see a large demonic hand holding the woman up by her legs.

It was a demon lord. In old texts this demon lord was mentioned only a few times, but in all of them she was never defeated or killed. Well, it was more like she put her tail between her legs before Shizuku could shoot her head off and ran like the coward she was. Portals can be very inconvenient when the enemy is using them against one.

The overwhelming presence resulted in the humans in almost panic like fear as the nobles tried their best to put some distance between themselves and the demon. The groom couldn't handle the pressure and the fear in this moment as he lost consciousness. While Shizuku asked herself sweatdropping if this boy actually planned on marrying a princess and becoming the emperor, who would rule this continent when this was already enough to knock his socks off, the guards had already moved in and tried to get through the barrier. Another mage tried to hit the barrier with a spell from his wand, but the blue electric spark did nothing but take the hit unchanged. The spears of the guards were as futile as the magic.

Shizuku knew already what was going to come now. It was impossible for humans to break a demonic barrier even with powerful crests. The demon that generated the barrier had to be destroyed first. Unlike the spell [Dimensional Lockdown], a spell that high level angels and demons could cast, the barrier of this demon let absolutely nothing through, making it impossible for the humans to send reinforcements into the battle. Shizuku had seen it many times in the past. How units of knights and soldiers got trapped in some barrier with some demon and got torn apart into shreds. This time would be no different like all those decades ago.

As expected from the two archdukes, they didn't back out the fight here as both held up their hands as they summoned their crests. Both where large and had complex patterns, indicating their strength. Then both crests fused together forming a new one of a much more complex pattern and blinding brilliance. But the awe only held up for a moment as Lilith brought up her sword and sliced through both the crest and the two rulers' necks. The pseudo grancrest shattered like glass not even a minute after being formed. The bride screamed in the face of her father's death and the people around her did as well. The demon was deaf for such things as she simply disintegrated into a cloud of black energy, retreating back into the world she came from.

The blonde mage looked devastated as did several other people as well. The groom woke up once more and looked at the dead bodies of their fathers as well. Yet he tried to reassure his bride as he smiled at her and held out his hand to her. But instead of taking it she turned around, gripping the hem of her skirt tightly.

Shizuku turned off her [Crystal Monitor] at this as she sat down on her bed again. Her rabbit snuggled to her as she looked down at the ground in front of her. And then a smile crept up her face. She knew that look in Marrine's eyes. A look she had seen in her own mirror long ago as well.

"So she actually turns down her prince? Kukuku, that little brat. Turning her engaged one's hand down despite having accepted it on her own at first and now that her father died she turns him down." Shizuku mused to herself as she heard the dampened sound of rain falling and thunder roaring above her. "If they don't seal the deal there will be no chance for them to form the precious Grancrest. And then I will have to put an end to their war." Shizuku thought loud to herself as she closed her eyes, listening to the thunder above. The rabbit in her lap didn't care as it only snuggled up more on its owner.

She may have sat still for the last decades, almost a century, but now she had been silent for long enough. The humans had already forgotten her existence, the Chaos Level had dropped dramatically since she last hunted demons for humans and the nations were now weakened. If she wanted a written invitation, she'd get none at all. However, now her revenge was closer than ever before. For now, it was raining, but that wouldn't stop her from beginning to prepare.

Prepare for the war, that would soon once more set this continent ablaze.

* * *

And she didn't have to wait long. Only months after the ruined wedding, the two nations entered the state of war again. She didn't even had to do anything as entire villages were swallowed by chaos and hundreds and thousands lost their lives in fights between the armies of both nations. Chaos broke out between neighbouring lords and soon everything escalated. While a civil war was impossible with both factions keeping a short leash around their subordinates, it was no secret that especially the Fantasia Union was suffering an internal crisis with Alexis as the new leader. The boy was so naive and dependent on the other lords, one could tell he wasn't really cut out to be a ruler. Not when he was still so love drunk on Marrine, who had become quite a militaristic tyrant after her fathers death.

However, the arachne was not just sitting back and did nothing. She had spent centuries with preparing herself for this conflict and that was not going to waste. While the main forces fought one another, Shizuku started a discord campaign across the territories. Villages were burnt to the ground, people became nothing more than food for demons and every lord in her way no matter what rank or how significant they may have been, they all found their end by the end of one of her arrows. People accused one another over everything and it looked like all was coming down soon enough.

But one day there came someone new to the battlefield. A young lord Theo who was a naive, yet noble from an island nation ruled by a selfish tyrant had come to the continent and started to get influence under the tutelage of none other than the girl that tried to save the archdukes at the wedding, Siluca Meltes.

At first, Shizuku thought that this fraud would simply die in the flames of war as soon as he would enter the battlefield, but somehow he managed to not only amass power on the continent, but also to free his homeland and together with the Fantasia Union to challenge the Factory Alliance. In some fights it was even more bewildering luck than actual skill and sometimes it seemed even absurd how he managed to not get killed. Theo seemed to just overcome every obstacle within his path.

And that was a thorne on Shizuku's side. Especially when he settled the conflict between both warring nations by making Marrine give in into her feelings for Alexis. She wanted to facepalm at the stupidity of the situation. She started that war to find the culprits behind her father's death and for that she shoved him away? Worried or not for Prince Fainting, but now someone overdid it.

When the Mage Association showed their true colors afterwards as the true culprits of the failed wedding and by extension the war itself and killed a multitude of nobles with those mages that were meant to be their advisors, the leaders of the factions were spared by the mages or managed to defend themselves.

It was just such a waste. Even those who had everything in control in the shadows somehow failed to prolong the war when all leaders wold be at their weakest. Shizuku honestly questioned the intelligence of those mages for once. And so the united army under Theo rode to Silica, the city were everything began and everything would end. Quite poetic, when one was into such stories and the mage associtation would have provided a somewhat good fight. Instead they were only defending the City without truly being a threat to the united armies. Even that cyclops monster they had unleashed was killed in such a pathetic way by a group of 3 people it was neither entertaining nor dramattic. It was just sad.

When a certain vampire showed up to stop Theo and his friends, only to fail when his illusions were broken by the Holy Grail's power, Shizuku decided that she had waited long enough. It was time to return to the stage for the last act.

* * *

The Vampire King Dimitirie had been defeated. Mumbling like the broken mess that he was, he ran through the underwood of the forest of Eternal Darkness surrounding his castle. Well what had been his castle before Theo Cornaro had come.

"I don't want to die. I don't want to die." He mumbled over and over again as he rushed through the dark forest.

That was when suddenly something impaled his leg.

"AHHHH!" Screaming in panic and pain, the vampire king fell to the ground. Hot tears streamed down his violet skin as he looked at the cause of this burning pain shooting through his body. It was an arrow embedded in his lower left leg, glowing in a golden light as it looked like it was completely made out of it. Then another one hit his right shoulder, pinning him to the ground. The glowing projectiles burnt his flesh like the harsh light of the sun as he tried to pull them out only for his hands to be burnt upon touch.

"Oh, how the mighty have fallen." A woman's voice said as it echoed through the forest, seemingly coming from all directions. Then Shizuku came out with her bow still in hand, looking down on Dimitirie. The weapon in her hand was not an ordinary bow made of wood. The entire weapon seemed to be made of metal as silver and gold made the weapon look more elegant.

"Wha- What are you? Who are you?" Dimitrie said in a crazed manner as he tried to get away, but with the arrow through his shoulder and in the ground below, he couldn't move at all. The arachne looked surprised at him, before smiling.

"My, my. You have actually forgotten about me Dimitrie." Shizuku said as she walked up to him. "Do you really not remember me? Or do you not WANT to remember me?" She asked as she stepped on the vampire's chest with one of her sharp legs.

"W-Wh-What are you saying?!" He stammered. Shizuku sighed and shot Dimietrie a frown.

"So you really forgot about me then. Can this day become any more stupid?"

At the same time, Theo and Siluca sneezed as they learned the truth of the world.

"Okay, okay. I'll tell you since I have time on my hand, before the Grancrest is completed." The arachne said, before stomping down on Dimitrie as two of her legs impaled his chest.

"GRAAHHHH! AHAAAHHH!" He screamed, causing Shizuku to flinch slightly at the volume of his voice, before shooting a web from her hand into his face, sealing his mouth shut. Wiht his screams now muffled down, she began.

"I was there when your kind first came into this world. I was among Leon's companions and alongside them one of the many unsung heroes of that age." She said as her legs began to move inside Dimitrie's chest, prying his ribs apart and breaking them. The vampire screamed and cried, but nothing came out. And Shizuku kept torturing him. "We both fought side by side against the tides of Chaos and I have watched you build your kingdom after that was all over." The arachne continued as one of her legs found a gap between the rips and pierced through Dimitrie's torso. "And finally, it was me who told you about so many things. Sometimes you really bothered me with your thirst for knowledge about heteromorphs and immortatlity."

Dimitrie's eyes widened. Looking up he didn't saw the arachne, but a woman he had asked so many questions. Someone who he himself had found a nice companion in. Someone he had not seen in centuries. He had asked where she was after the chaos was defeated, but the others only said that they didn't know or turned away wordlessly. Soon enough, no one even remembered her.

"It seems you remember now. And normally I'd deal otherwise with old friends when I meet them after such a long time." Shizuku admitted, but then she pulled back the string on her bow as a new arrow appeared. "But unfortunately, it has been too long to call you even an aquataince."

Dimitrie made sounds that sounded like. "No. Wait. Please." But with the web in his mouth he couldn't talk at all.

"Do you know what happened after I had to leave. I was hunted like some sort of mad dog until poople finally seemed to give up on it. I settled down far away where people seemed to not mind what I am. And I had a child on my own. An innocent little thing." Tears shot in Shizuku's eyes, but she didn't bother to wipe them away. For the first time since an eternity, since moment her child was taken from her by those she had thought to be her friends, she actually cried. "But it was all just temporarily. The people I trusted, who had called themselves my friends before, members of Leon's fellowship took everything from me I had with the help of those people in that place. And that is why I can't and won't stop until every last one of them is six feet underground. No matter if they are human, vampire or werewolf." She said with a glare that may would have killed if glares could kill.

Dimitrie became silent, yet looked at her.

"I'm sorry Dimitrie, but in the end you were just a coward. Just like back then when you wanted me to tell you vehemently how I was immortal without the need of Chaos being there. Just like how vehemently tried to prolong the age of chaos just because you are afraid of dying. Right now, it seems like killing you is just a merciful thing for me to do. Now accept this parting gift, old friend."

A swarm of bats shot up into the sky as the sound of an arrow hitting flesh resonated through the night. Shizuku now stood before Nothing more than a pile of ashes on the ground. Sighing she turned away, knowing that the fight for Silica had been won. She had a lot of work to do now. Teleporting away she left the forest. There was a place in the East that she needed to visit.

* * *

Two years had passed since the Mage Associtation was defeated and the Grancrest was still not formed. The arachne had no clue what was actually holding them back for so long. The war was over, the forces in the shadows were defeated and all nations stood united for the first time in the history of the continent. It had taken this long to bring stability to the continent. The 'minor' incidents caused by the arachne might have been partly responsible for that as well, but they managed to overcome that discord. And yet, mankind had mostly recovered.

So why weren't the people in charge doing what they said they would and bring about the end of the Age of Chaos? If Shizuku wouldn't know it any better she'd say that Pandora actually managed to keep Theo from finishing his ambitions of creating a more peaceful world without the threat of Chaos looming constantly over them.

Shizuku had been aware of Pandora and her warning that mankind would destroy the worldif the Age of Chaos would end. Why? Well she had investigated that chaos globe in the great hall of Silica already long ago. When she appraised it, her mind was suddenly dragged in and Pandora spoke to her for the first and only time. Shizuku had met the 'goddess' as the Mage Asssociation called the spirit like entity, that wished to prevent mankind from blowing up their own planet. Pandora even wished Shizuku to aid her in this questto prolong the age of Chaos.

But she refused.

Even though knowing all of that and being already on her crusade for vengeance back then, Shizuku knew that whether it was mankind that hunted her for not seeing her as a person or Chaos hunting her for simply existing, it would make no difference at all. She wanted to end both. Also she didn't feel like and still wasn't feeling like Hunting down humans for the sake of a being that was not able to achieve her goal on her own and therefore depended on others to do the dirty work.

Still the chance that the people would recover that ancient technology was still there and given that Pandora was willing to plunge the entire world into a living hell for that was enough of a warning for Shizuku to consider her next moves carefully. She would have to defeat humanity very fast, before they would get the chance to recover the ancient technology. Of course the arachne had weaved her threads around this as well long ago and a simple tug on them would eliminate that possibility as well. The kill switch only needed to be tipped over and all those researchers that were currently sitting on it would vanish alongside their work.

With that she teleported to all her hideouts across the continent in the span of a few minutes and confirmed that all was in place. Being on the run and being around for decades had made her create more than just one base for operations.

Instead all across the continent, she had her little workshops in every territory of the continent including Bretland and Dartania. At first it had been within every of the original lands, but then those fell or were split up before being merged back together. It was almost like a chaotic wacky chase to make sure that she could go wherever she wanted to whenever she wanted to, which she actually already could with [Teleportation] given the fact that she had roamed this continent for centuries and had seen basically every single place no matter how hidden or dangerous.

Shaking her head at this, Shizuku turned to Sistania, the homeland of the soon first emperor of Atlatan Theo Cornaro. It had been brighter since Theo defeated the Rossinis on their own turf. People laughed more and seemed to be better than ever before. However, Shizuku did not plan to exclude These people.

The villagers simply did their daily activities. But then they noticed a darkness creeping across the hills towards the village. In the middle of the day and no cloud in the sky this was even more terrifying as the culprits could be seen clear as day.

It were thousands of giant rats. Each of these rodents was larger than a large dog and all of them moved like one big mass. A tide of living bodies, running like a tsunami at the village. Each of them bearing red eyes and holding bloodlust in them. The people panicked and ran away, while the few farmers took their tools to fight the rats. But in the end it was futile.

The thousands of rodents simply ran up the bodies of the people, bit and scratched them while they got buried under the bodies of the rodents. Women tried to safe their children, but the rats spared no one. The screams of men, women and children alike were drowned in the screeching of rats. Within only a few minutes the entire village Theo Cornaro had grown up in was devoid of humans. The rats simply feasted upon the humans and the crops. Even the bodies of their killed kin were devoured alongside whatever these people had stored for winter in their houses.

When Shizuku made the rats to advance towards the next village all that was left were the bloody skeletons of the dead. Not a piece of flesh was left behind by the rats, while bones had been chewed on and chipped by their sharp teeth. She was no beast tamer herself though so she had to rely on earth spells to make the rats run from her in the direction she wanted them to go.

Besides that, what came from the ground at one village, came for another one from above. Among the many creatures Shizuku had set up on the island her favorites were the Symphalian birds. With their steel like feathers and sword like talons, they mercilessly cut through stone, wood and flesh alike. People tried to shield themselves with wooden planks or even took aim with arrows or swung their harvesting tools at the avian monster, but their metalic feathers cleaved through their defenses and made the attacks bounce off as the monsters mercilessly carried out their attack, clawing and picking people to death.

Within only hours, the entire island of Sistina was purged from its human civilization. All that was left were meadows, small forests and empty, partly destroyed buildings. Now all islands around Atlatan were under her control as the nation of Dartania had experienced its own end in a similiar manner a week ago.

Though it was not really her doing. One day she simply had been there planning to do the same she had just done on this subcontinent, when she saw the cities in flames. The fire had spread from the harbour to the center of the port city. And then she saw the culprits. Armed with spears and swords a group of creatures such as sahuagin, an amphibious fishman like demihuman race. In the harbor she had seen massive sharks and maybe even a mermaid or an undine in the water as they shot water spells at the ships, that had desperately tried to flee.

The weird thing about this was that Shizuku had nothing to with that.

The reason why she was able to bring these YGGDRASIL monsters to Atlatan despite not being a beast Tamer had something to do with the circumstances of her coming into this world. Before the Servers were shutdown she had just cleared a rather weak dungeon, that was usually only used to farm materials and grind EXP. However, just a few seconds after she had killed the boss monster on the deepest floor, the clock struck midnight. At that Moment Shizuku was brought into this world.

And alongside with her, the dungeon had been brought into this world too.

As Shizuku was not part of a guild, not giving her the right to claim a dungeon as a guild base, the dungeon itself remained like it was in the game. It still spawned and respawned monsters, that reacted to everything and everyone from outside hostile. Though on her Level 100 she had a passive skill that allowed her to actually avoid further conflict with the monsters as it made monsters below a certain level back away. That may excluded summons and certain beings that were resistant to that, but no living creature like bears or wolves ever attacked Shizuku ever since she came here.

So she actually captured weak monsters that usually did everything to stay the hell away from her by using her nets and threads and used [Teleportation] to set the creatures free again wherever she wanted them too. And over the years she had caught basically all of those the dungeon could offer including the respawned boss monster. What began as a hobby to catch'em all turned now into a guerilla warfare method where she could sit back and watch as critters killed all that moved before them.

However the dungeon was a cave/forest type dungeon. It had no such things such as aquatic monsters. The only possible conclusion was that another dungeon had appeared in the world. She had heard rumors of ships mysteriously disappearing before the coast of Dartania, but she had expected something like a demon or a Chaos Calamity acting like the infamous Bermuda Triangle.

Still, even though this revelation was a surprise, it was a pleasant one. She didn't had to deal with the desert nation all on her own as she had already set free a bunch of monsters in the deserts to kill the people there. And since similiar incidents seemed to emerge in Bretland as well she could already assume that this territory was slowly becoming a monster house as well.

Now the actual war could begin. For a long time she had planned and caused discord among the nobles. The puppeteer was not some mage association that acted in the name of some deity. No, she was the one weaving this fate with the threads she had created among the nobles. She had let the puppets dance for long enough. Now the time for her vengeance had come. The purging of the continent from Chaos was simply the cue to pull the trigger for the purge of mankind.

Shizuku teleported to Sistina where the celebrations of the 2nd anniversary of the defeat of the Mage Association were at their climax. Standing in a dark alley from which she could see the sky she uttered a single word.

"Begin." With that word uttered, hell was unleashed again upon the continent.

* * *

The atmosphere couldn't be brighter. 2 years after the Grancrest War, Theo Corano had announced not only his coronation as the emperor of the continent Atlatan, but also his wedding to pact magician Siluca Meletes alongside the wedding of Alexis and Marrine.

He also planned to unite his crest with all the others to form te Grancrest at the ceremony as a symbol of unity and order. According to the documents of the Mage Association, after the Grancrest would be formed, its power would immediately send waves across the entire continent, erasing all traces of Chaos, including all creatures and supernatural phenomenon. That would also mean the end for magic, crests, arts and everything else that is associated to Chaos in someway.

It would still take some time to prepare everything for this sudden change. Theo and the others couldn't just expect the entirety of the continent to be unaffected by this. Before they could do so, they needed everything prepared according to Siluca to avoid incidents happening because of Chaos being purged. Sighing in his head, the green haired man tried his best to hide his mental and physical fatigue. The responsibilities and work as the de facto ruler were getting to him.

He was alongside his Friends and allies in the great hall of Silica. Lords and high society from the entire continent were gathered to congratulate the two couples and the common folk only celebrated the end of the war.

That was when the entire sky turned into a dark crimson color despite it being in the middle of the day. Dark clouds began to gather and cover the entire sky with a dark fluffy looking blanket as blue arches of lightning cracked over the sky. People suddenly cried out in shock and fear as even those who were acting calm were frozen in place when they heard a loud booming Sound from above.

"**Humans, hear me.**" A deep, distorted voice said as the clouds began to shift. Two holes in the blanket opened like eyes as an unnatural light shone out of it. The people at the ground panicked, ran away or stood there paralyzed in utter terror. Some sunk to their knees and began to pray to their god. Others simply murmured among themselves as seemingly eyes made of hell fire glared down upon them.

"**I am but a messenger of my master. First off, my master wishes to congratulate you for defending yourselves against the threat of Chaos that loomed over your heads for so long. My master had not thought that primitive apes like yourself would actually be capable of pulling such a feat off.**" The entity said. That only added more confusion among the audience.

"What? Does that mean this is not the work of Chaos?" Lassic asked.

"Primitive apes?" Lassic's advisor Moreno Dortous asked confused.

"**The second and more important part of this message is a warning. My master hereby declares war against all of Mankind. There will be no negotiations and there will be no mercy. We will find you and we will wipe you off the face of this world all together. Whether you are old or young, whether you are a soldier or a civilian, whether you are poor or rich doesn't matter for us. My master will not stop until the entire human race has redeemed itself for its sins in the past with its extinction. Enjoy the rest of your pathetic existence for the next time you'll see us you will die.**" With that the clouds dispersed into nothingness and the sky regained its natural blue color. The people were still frozen in shock at this.

What not even the most trained shadows in the city could see was how a certain figure made its way out of the city. Chuckling in amusement, the arachne watched the humans buzz around their city in panic as the fear took a hold in their hearts. It was amusing to watch to say at least. It was as if she was holding a glass over a bunch of ants and they all simply began scrambling around to avoid the strange source of light and heat.

Yet she still snuck out of the city. It wasn't like they could detect her or tell that she herself had spoken the message from above through a multitude of spells. Also she already had left a message for Theo in his office. Call it a present, though the groom and bride probably won't like it too much.

"Let's begin my last play." Shizuku said as a portal opened and she vanished through it from the scene.

* * *

The army of the empire came to the place that was mentioned in the letter. The letter itself was somehow in the personal quarters of Theo and Siluca. The strangest thing about it was the fact that room had been guarded the whole time and no one had come in or out. Not even someone to clean up. Not even a shadow would have managed that. This put Theo even more into unease. Just as he had thought he had brought about an age of order and peace, a new war was already looming right over their heads.

But who was it they were fighting? And what was their motive?

That was what Theo was thinking about as the army arrived at the battlefield.

A simply grassland plain with a few hills here and there. From the hills one could see the wind making the grass bend like waves of water in this green sea. But other than that it was completely untouched territory. And now a force of thousands was standing there ready to fight, yet there was no evidence of the enemy being there. This was something that the others had thought as strange as well.

They had scouted the area before. The reports claimed thousands of heavily armored troops under an unknown flag with a spider on it. Stranger than the fact that there was no known flag with a spider on it, was now that there was no army to fight. Has the enemy pulled back or simply given up already? It was the only logical Thing as thousands of armed troops couldn't just vanish without a trace.

But this was not the case at all. Soon after the imperial army arrived a lone figure dressed in a dark coat stood upon a hill. It appeared to be riding on something as Shizuku's entire body was covered in the cloak. After that she rose her war flag in the air signaling the army that the fight was beginning. She didn't Need any buffing from it as her own buff spells cast earlier were way more effective. Theo had no choice but to answer with his own war flag, buffing his allies and troops.

"They made such a big speech and now they only sent one person to fight? That's weird." Lassic said as Theo, Siluca and Moreno agreed.

"Who cares? Anyone who hurts my Siluca gets crushed. Aishela said, bloodlusty as ever.

"This recks of a trap. Good that Marrine and Alexis aren't here." Moreno said.

"Should we send over a messenger?" Theo asked. "Maybe we can ask what the meaning of this is?"

"If they really want to fight us like they said it would be a waste." Lassic said with his arms crossed. "But I see you haven't lost that mindset yet." He said with a smile to Theo. "Still bringing an entire army to fight one person is just a waste of everyone's time..." Lassic said, but then Shizuku spoke up.

"If you wish to retreat now I'll give you a minute to do so. After that I'll kill you." She said once more with her voice amplifie through magicd.

"Looks like there really will be no negotiations." Theo sighed sadly.

"First unit surround the enemy and capture her." Lassic said as the soldiers moved out. Shizuku looked coldly at them.

"I see. Instead of heeding the warnings and the fact that I'm alone, you try to capture me. Still this is the place where you all will find your end." With that the arachne grabbed her bow and pulled a single arrow on its string back. It glowed in a white light before being released. But instead of flying into the army it exploded in the air above the unit into thousands of light bolts that rained down on the knights.

"Take cover!" Someone yelled as the knights held up their shields, but it was in vain. The bolts simply pierced through shield and armor, before exploding in a large explosion. Only charred flesh and torn armor was left of the army as the others were frozen in shock.

"A magical bowman?!"

"But how? How can there be such potent magic!"

Theo was conflicted. The first move was completely destroyed by this one attack.

"Oh he looks confused now." Shizuku said to herself. "Now let's give him a good taste of despair as well, shall we?" With that she pulled back another arrow, aimed and fired with a smile on her face.

**THUD**

Theo didn't come to think about it as a suddenly another arrow struck Siluca suddenly in the heart.

"The…o…" She croaked out before four more arrow hit her in her chest, forehead, arm and stomach. She only managed to cough up a gallon of blood as she fell dead to the ground.

"SILUCA!" Theo and Aishela cried out, but the whistling sound of new projectiles made him look up. The archer was arrow after arrow into the army. Each exploded in a violent explosion, killing dozens on the spot. Footmen and riders alike. None of them survived the continuous onslaught of the magical archer. The thundering sound of the explosions drowned the screams of the panicking men in them.

"YOU BITCH!" Aishela roared as she jumped off her horse and charged at the archer.

"ALL MEN CHARGE!" Lassic declared as the army knew that a bowman was only strong as long as they were in the distance. The own bowmen tried to shoot her, but each arrow simply bounced off an invisible barrier. The arachne meanwhile looked at Aishela charging at her like a furious rhinoceros.

"Oh you're approaching me? But can't you tell that I came prepared?" Shizuku said as beneath Aishela's foot an expllosion launched her into the air. "And that's checkmate." Shizuku shot another arrow, hitting the airborne berserker in the chest. With a large explosion most of her Aishela's Body was obliterated. Shizuku then looked at the army that came her way.

"[Birth of the Forest]!" Shizuku declared as the ground shook and rose up. Thorned vines shot out the ground and impaled or tied up soldiers and mounts, reducing the number of attackers from thousands to a few hundred. "[Lightning Arrow]!" Arrows unleashed into the air, burst into lightning as it rained down on the remaining soldiers. Man after man was mowed down by a seemingly never ending hailstorm of arrows and Lightning, while they couldn't approach much further.

The once proud imperial army was reduced to nothingness within mere minutes. Yet they were charging at her, led by Theo Cornaro. The troops in the back were acting as reinforcements now tried to flank the arachne on her hill.

"Interesting. You have enhanced your allies, but can you buff your mount?" With that Shizuku simply shot the horses the knights were riding. Flying from their dead mounts and trampled to death by those riders that followed the army was disabled as well. "Now come."

Upon her command, hundreds and thousands of armorclad Golems rose from the ground. They were the result of Shizuku's alchemy skills. Each had enhanced and enchanted armor and weapons, making them way supreme to the ones that the empire could bring. It was almost too easy actually. The golems attacked with swords and maces, but some had even body parts of monsters on them allowing them to for example shoot Flames through an arm that was originally the head and neck of a Dragon. At the same time Shizuku gave her "troops" assistance from above as she shot many arrows with fire magic into the forest Setting it on fire alongside the unfortunate Souls inside or hit by the projectiles directly.

The remaining soldiers burst into flames, screaming in pain as they were roasted in their own armor. The only thing Theo could do was to look at all the death and destruction before him as the flames roared in front of him.

"EVERYONE RETREAT!" He shouted through the mess of noises, but his words reached no one. This was no longer some honourable fight with structure and planned strategies. It was a one-sided slaughter. A fight for the pure survival of the individual. Soldiers abandoned their posts and tried to run only to be cut down by a sword or chainsaw of another golem. Lassic had been torn apart by the vine as his now mutilated corpse dangled from the burning thorny vines. Moreno got blasted away by a lightning, leaving only a charred body on the ground. And Irvin had dashed into the woods to engage the archer himself, only for his body to be crushed under the foot of a massive golem that was even taller than the Burning trees.

It was a nightmare. A horrible nightmare and Theo couldn't wake up from it. His friends had all died. He couldn't flee as his horse had been shot down and those that had survived had fled. Drawing his sword and channeling his crest's power into it, he charged at the golems and slashed at them. But his short Sword only left a scratch mark on the armor, before he was batted away by a swing of the arm. The force behind the attack was similiar to car hitting him. Flying to the ground, he could only look as the army of golems approached him.

But he didn't flee. He stood up again and faced his enemy.

That was when they all stopped moving and the flames suddenly became smaller. Theo was confused at this, before he heard the clapping of Hands. Through a path in the Burning forest, the archer was approaching him as the golems made way for her. Now from upclose he could actually see more details of the archer.

Shizuku's long blonde hair was now tied in twintails as her body was covered in silvery armor with golden ornaments, covering her chest, arms and hands

"I see you made it Theo Cornaro. Color me impressed from your determination, but disappointed of your selfish attitude towards the lives of your subordinates. Would you have had less men you wouldn't have made it this far." Shizuku said with a dismissive tone. The young man was now shaken out of his stupor as he glared at her.

"Who are you?" He asked. Shizuku took off her coat revealing her spider abdomen to him. The sight of the inhumane creature made his face go pale like a piece of chalk. Unlike her upper body, the spider half was not covered in additional armor

"Me? I'm just a monster that seeks your damnation." She said. When Theo did not reply she looked down at herself, before looking at Theo again, putting her hands on her hips. "Hey what's wrong with you all the sudden? Stop staring at me like some braindead idiot."

"Why are you doing this? Are you some sort of creature of Chaos? You- GACK!" In that moment the threads around Theo's neck tightened.

"Fool! The fact that I am here has nothing to do with chaos. I am a being that is not from that place." Shizuku said, but then she saw that Theo completely ignored her as he was busy trying to free himself. "Don't bother it. Not even your sword can cut these threads of mine. And even if it could, I'd not let you. If I wanted to, I could end you right now."

Theo at her with a hateful gaze in his eyes. "Then why aren't you doing so?" He snarled at her.

"Why am I not doing so? Well, it would make things boring like that 'fight' you offered. Seriously when I was younger the humans at least could be considered a threat or a challenge at least, but you guys really take the cake for being a disappointment." Shizuku said gesturing at the battlefield filled with corpses of his friends and allies. "I hope you at least will put up a fight and not die so easily like your spouse." With that she released the threads around his neck as she threw him across the field, causing him to hit the Ground harshly.

"What is it that you gain from this? What did we do to you?" Theo asked.

"Your kind has hunted me for decades, thinking I was some bloodthirsty monster. I'm simply giving them what they wanted me to be. A monster that would kill your kind without hesitation and therefore mankind will soon be extinct. Did you know that except from this place I managed already to wipe out the countries in the north and east? That I was the one responsible that your home island nation has already become a graveyard?" With that Theo charged at her with a battlecry which was easily dodged, before she extended two of with her talons and slashed Theo across the thigh, damaging his kidney and causing him to bleed a lot.

"Oh, I hit a nerve, didn't I?" Shizuku said as she simply pierced through Theo's leg with her own. Theo screamed in pain as the spider leg bend and lodged itself into his flesh, before throwing him to the ground. With the leg broken, Theo could no longer stand. "I'm a bit disappointed boy. Before you erased Chaos, there was a certain... difficulty in the battles. There was magic and crests and demons and other supernatural things. Now you cannot even protect yourself from some simple spells as all that is left of that is me." She said as she wrapped her threads around Theo's sword arm and threw him to the ground once more.

"You know what you did to your soldiers? You forced them, who always were fighting alongside your crest, to fight with their own strength. They... no all of mankind has become so dependent on the crests' powers, that they cannot even fight on their own anymore and now you realize how weak you actually are, right? You send them to the slaughter like lambs."

Theo tried to get up again, though he could barely handle the pain as it numbed his senses.

"You're wrong... The people who fought alongside me don't depend on the power of my crest." He said wheezing.

"Yes, because they are all dead now. But don't fret. Once this fight is over you'll join them and your wife in whatever afterlife you believe in. That is of course if there is an afterlife at all. Personally I don't think there is one, but being wrong is humane." Shizuku chuckled to herself. "And after you are done for the rest of mankind will follow."

"I WON'T LET YOU!?" With that Theo's crest engulfed the sword in a faint blue light as he charged at Shizuku. The Arachne let him slash at her, though she didn't expect his attack to do any damage. Which it didn't. All she felt was being pressed downwards as Theo seemed to cut through her armor and carapace with all his weight, but the blade didn't even chip her armor.

"Yare yare daze…" She said as she grabbed the sword that was on her shoulder, trying to cleave her in two, and gripped it so hard that it shattered.

In this moment Theo knew despair.

Shizuku then grabbed his shield arm, twisted and crushed it, making his appendage bend in a normally impossible angle as the metal of his shield bend and dug into his flesh as it was crushed. Metal and bone dug into his flesh. Blood oozed out the torn skin beneath the armor, staining the golden and white armor crimson. The scream echoed over the hills of corpses. With what was simply a tug for Shizuku, she dislocated the broken arm.

"You realize it now? You cannot win." Shizuku said as she towered over the broken lord.

"You're wrong. The others will... stop you."

"That is where you are wrong as well. Let me show you." Shizuku opened dozens of screens around her and Theo. Each displayed a city and all of them were in chaos as monsters flooded the cities. "While you were so desperately trying to get power to save your home. I have planted the seeds for all of this continent to be extinguished. In a matter of weeks all that is your civilization will be burned to the ground."

Theo couldn't tear his eyes from the play before him. All he had build, all he and all his companions and Friends had sacrificed so much to create after the war was being consumed by tides of Monsters. Helplessly he watched as armed soldiers were torn apart and eaten alive. To think that his home had suffered the same fate, made his heart heavy. And the fact that his Friends that had come with him into this fight had fallen, including Siluca, made the last shreds of hope vanish.

"Was everything for naught?" He asked no one as he looked on the ground in front of him with a dead and distant look in his eyes.

"Yes." Shizuku told him with a matter of fact tone. "You lived a fairytale Theo. You ran after some hero and wanted to bring peace to your home, but instead you lead the people into a war against the world. Your foolish naïve attitude and your blind trust in that woman have cost hundreds and thousands their lives as you turned a blind eye on this. Your dream ends here and now. Perhaps if you had lived a few decades earlier this would not have happened. But this is how it ends." With that Shizuku broke Theo's neck as a last act of mercy by slapping him hard enough across the face to make a solid wall of bricks collapse.

As Theo died his crest separated from his body, but unlike other crests that turned into a chaos core again, it stayed pure and shone brightly due to it having absorbed the Holy Grail. Shizuku wanted to laugh into the face of the one who made up that religion, if it wasn't for the fact that they had died. Holding out her own crest, violet tendrils of light began to devour Theo's crest, fueling her own with power and causing it to merge with the Holy Grail as well.

In that Moment, the power coursing through her body was extraordinary for a crest. She now understood why people had made such a fuss over this crest. Maybe she should have collected this crest a long time ago. Speaking of which, Chaos cores usually do disintegrate after a while after being separated from their owner, so Shizuku had developed her own technique in harvesting them.

Shooting a thread from her finger she snatched away the core of Lassic's crest, before railing it in like a fish on a fishing rod. The core was absorbed as well into her crest. With another surge of power coming from her crest, she left the plains.

* * *

It was not the last fight that Shizuku fought like this. Only hours after the defeat of the army, the arachne assassinated all other lords on the continent by teleorting into each town as monsters killed everyone else. She didn't need to stay and watch them doing what they were brought for to do. As a player she knew how strong these monsters were in comparison to the demons of this age and as someone who has watched how the weapons of this world had developed over time she knew that they were not going to do much about them.

The Monsters however were not her only trump Card in her sleeves. Golems, that she had hidden within the walls and beneath the pavement of the cities and towns were activated after having slumbered for decades to block the exits and entrances and cause more destruction within the cities, disturbing the human forces. Soon only Silica was left as the last city standing in midst of this chaos unaffected.

Though not for long as the golems within that city were numerous as well and each of them was more than capable to crush the defenders within their own lines. A mental command was all it took to activate them and unleash hell upon the city.

It had no strategic reason why this city was the last to fall. Alexis and Marrine were just the last ones to witness all of this in Silica because Shizuku wanted them to. Their failed marriage had been the trigger for the war and they would be the last opponents she would face. Like 2 years ago, Silica was not only the place where everything began, but also where everything would come to an end.

Breaking into the great hall was quite easy when one could instantly teleport inside. And so Shizuku appeared out of nowhere on the ceiling as she spotted the two People she was looking for. Inside the great hall were Alexis and Marrine once more, looking shocked at the arachne's arrival. Whatever they were doing was put aside as Shizuku jumped down from the ceiling she had appeared on and landed on the altar only meters away from the two heirs. Around her the room exploded in motion.

"Hello there." She greeted the blonde man and woman as guards and shadows attacked the monster from all sides at once, only to be torn apart by her razorsharp threads. Other than a drop of blood hitting her leg, nothing else of them managed to reach her. "Well, your welcome committee needs some work on hospility and your dancers need to visit their coreographs, but other than that I'm sure your wedding will be splendid." She said as she rolled her shoulders, causing her joints to crack slightly. "If you would live long enough to witness it that is."

Instintively Alexis got in front of Marrine, though he was the less experienced one in direct combat of the couple. Especially when Marrine was the one with the sword in hand. seriously, was Alexis stupid enough to think he could do something to her by using the power of love or what?

"Okay, I'll make it short. Hand over your crests and I'll spare you the pain of being killed in brutal Fashion. Got it?" Shizuku asked.

"I refuse!" Marrine came up with her answer instantly as she drew her weapon and charged at the arachne as her crest coated the weapon's blade in a golden light. Shizuku simply swatted the weapon aside, causing it to fly across the room and embed itself inside a wall.

"Suit yourself." Shizuku said. Shocked Marrine only got to widen her eyes as Shizuku slammed two of her legs into Marrine's abdomen. It was like she was kneeling into her stomach, breaking her ribs and causing her to let out a choked gasp of pain. With another kick, Marrine was sent flying to the ground, screaming in pain as the kick was directed at her already broken ribs.

"MARRINE!" Alexis shouted as he leaned over his love. Before anything else could be said, the arachne shot her web at his face, causing him to cover his face in discomfort.

"Save it for the honeymoon, Romeo." Shizuku said coldly as she pulled the young man towards her and slashed him across the chest with her claw like fingers. Deep cuts left bloody marks on his chest as he fell down crying out in pain.

"A-ALEXIS!" Marrine choked out as she wanted to stand up, but found herself unable to. That was when suddenly the door to the great hall opened, making Shizuku click her tongue.

"Your majestys! The city is…" The guard in the door stopped as he and his 8 colleagues saw Alexis and Marrine hurt and Shizuku looming over both heirs. They were part of Marrine's unit of heavy armored markmen using magic bullets with the same destructive power of cannonballs, reducing entire enemy units to ashes.

"Excuse me, it's kind of a bad moment right now. Can you please come back later?" Shizuku said with the sweetest smile she could muster.

"OPEN FIRE!" Marrine's heavy armored guards shouted as they shot their firearms at the arachne, not taking into consideration that Marrine was in the explosion radius. Shizuku then actually grabbed Alexis with her thread and threw him between herself and the incoming bullets, causing his body to be torn apart by the magic bullets. Only gore and blood splattered across the ground at this.

"NOOOOO!?" Marrine cried out kneeling over the mortal remains of Alexis Deux, when she felt the back of her head being grabbed in a vie like grip.

"Don't worry. Soon you'll be with him again." Shizuku said, before slamming Marrine's head down on the ground with all the strength she could muster. Being Level 100 made that however completely overkill as all that happened was sickening crunching sound of her skull breaking and a large amount of blood splattering across the ground below.

"Princess!" Her guards shouted as if that would bring their now dead mistress back to life. The arachne quickly pulled out her arrow and fired. The speed was so fast that neither of them had time to react as arrows burrowed themselves into their eyes, the only part of their bodies that was not covered in armor. Falling dead to the Ground like puppets with their strings cut, the last defense fell.

"Now then." Shizuku stretched out her her hand as her crest appeared hovering in the air. As she looked at her crest once more, the arachne had to confess it had grown quite a lot since she had gained it from a chaos core in the Chaotic Age. Back then it had been so small and insignificant. Now it looked like a fierce spider from hell wit jagged fangs and legs and a flame like Symbol on the abdomen. It felt as if she had gotten this power just yesterday.

Before that however a last assassin tried to stab the arachne from behind. If it hadn't been for the for other people silent footstep, Shizuku wouldn't have been able to react. Leaning her head to the side, the knive passed her shoulder harmlessly as the assassin had tried to stab her in the back of her head. Grabbing the arm, she twisted it and broke it, causing the person behind her to grunt out in pain, before she through them over her shoulder to the ground.

The Assassin tried rolling away, but found their foot glued to the floor by webs. Turning to their opponent, they only saw a hand shooting to their face as Shizuku grabbed them by the face and snapped their neck with a tug of her sleeve. The dead Body fell limply to the Ground.

"So uncivilized." She muttered to herself. "Ah yes the Grancrest." With her threads she pulled the cores of Alexis and Marrine's Crests to her own as they were absorbed into the holy grail as well.

With that she had absorbed the last crests that were missing. The crests of the two ruler families Kreische and Deux. With the last crests being fully absorbed into her own, her crest suddenly grew larger one last time and started to emit a light as pulses of energy were released from it. It felt like on that day. The day that Leon first purged a demon before her eyes. But it was stronger, warmer and brighter. Her crest hovered in the air as it kept emitting this light, before she finally pulled her hand away.

Was that it? Was that really the end of the Age of Chaos? Shizuku looked around herself. Nothing really had changed. She had eexpected something more… dramatic or maybe even Pandora coming to this world and actively and actually trying to stop her from forming the Grancrest. But nothing? That was quite anticlimactic. The people outside still screamed as monsters tore them apart, the city was still under attack.

Nothing had changed at all. She thought as she summoned several [Crystal Monitor]s once more. This time she chose to observe places that were infested with Chaos ever since she came into this world. There was the forest of eternal Darkness, where Dimitirie's Castle stood now completely abandoned. There was a lake that was heavily polluted due to chaos and caused from time to time a chaos calamity in form of a very poisonous mist, which suffocated and poisoned all in its way. There were lairs of monsters and other places that still were twisted by the Chaos.

At first it looked like really nothing was happening, but then things began to change. Shizuku watched as all Chaos was purged with the formation of the Grancrest as she looked at it through the screens. Almost painfully it seemed as giant spiders disintegrated into particles of chaos alongside their webs that had covered an abandoned Village. The poisonous lake turned crystal clear within a heartbeat. The Forest of Eternal Darkness suddenly lit up for the first time in its recorded history. More and more places were cleansed of the Chaos and monsters and demons vanished completely from the world.

While she would not miss the demons she had fought and killed in the past, Shizuku still felt it was a little sad that they left like that. While Chaos had been a thorn in her side sometimes, she had to confess it made things a lot more enjoyable. Without Monsters or anything of that sort Happening anymore it would be quite calmer around the world now. Without Chaos, supernatural things now ceased to exist. The magicians lost their magic. The artists lost their arts and returned to normal human beings.

The reason why all these supernatural feats disappeared was because all was connected to Chaos. But not her type of magic. Not the monsters that came alongside her into this world. And not herself. These things were completely unaffected by the Grancrest's power. Even her own crest, that had brought an end to this Age of Chaos, was spared from the purge.

Now this world was mostly ordinary. Mostly, but not entirely.

But for what prize? This was the other sid of her deed. Her sin. Her vengeance. An act out of love that had spawned more hatred and death that she would ever have thought possible when she arrived.

She noticed that the screams had stopped and so she walked outside to look for herself at her work.

The buildings of Silica were destroyed. Every wall now spotted many holes in it and through the streets on could hear how monsters devoured the mortal remains of the people. Turning from the scene, Shizuku teleported to the place where just Moments ago, the last true battle was fought between monsters and men in a meadow in front of a last fortress.

It was a pitiful picture to look at. Hills of corpses and blood covered the land, staining the ground and grass red. Vultures, crows, rats and wolves feasted on the bodies of the dead already, attracted by the stench of death. the Fortress futher away smoked and burned from all windows as the last sounds of a battle fought with teeth and claws went silent. The last remnants of human resistance on Atlatan had fallen and now all that remained of mankind in this realm were the ruins of their cities and fortresses. Soon erosion would destroy them as well and vegetation would rise from the Ground, now that it was fertilized by the many dead, and overgrow what was once an uprising civilization before it was destroyed.

In this moment Shizuku felt content with herself. Years of planning, preparing and training, of research, experiments and patience had paid off. What had started as a simple walk through the lands had become an unsung epos of her destroying mankind on this continent entirely. She could barely believe it as she suddenly noticed her vison getting blurry.

She cried. Droplets of salty water ran down her face to her chin, before falling onto the corpses she stood upon. But those were not tears of joy, but sadness. A pain in her chest rose like an empty void that threatened to consume her. The guilt of having ended her own people.

Perhaps it was empathy. Perhaps it was the death of hope. Or maybe it was a remnant of her former human self as Shizuku Homura, that she cried right now. She didn't know the reason herself, but the death of all these people had made her so incredibly sad. Her sworn enemy mankind laid dead to her eight feet and yet she could not smile nor celebrate her victory.

She remembered those days. Those days when all she had was been taken from her. When her parents died in an accident. When the people that took her in, treated her like garbage. And yet, even in those moments she put up a fake smile, lied to both the world around her and herself.

"Don't worry. I'm fine." How many times had she said that to the people around her even when the pain was so much she would have wanted to just die and be done with it? She didn't know anymore. But this façade she kept up for others was something that had made her human.

Even though she has been an arachne for so long, Shizuku cried this time for the race that cast her away and threw her away like trash. The race that she was born as and treated her like garbage from her first memory on. But even then she was still glad to have experienced what it was like to be human. To be born a human and live a human life no matter how twisted it was.

Wiping her tears away Shizuku left the battlefield. As she left, she felt even more alone than when she came.

The sun finally set over the battlefield and with it the last day of mankind ended. The end of the Age of Chaos also marked the end of the Age of Man.

* * *

_One year later_

Shizuku had wandered the ruins of the cities for many days after the original owners had long passed away. She gathered everything that was useful for her. Now the world was going its natural course once more or at least mostly. Within a few decades the crop fields would turn into forests once more, that would give shelter to animals of all kinds. Without chaos there were no more supernatural disasters.

The world had become once more a wild garden Eden.

Sometimes the Arachne asked herself if she had chosen the right path. Sometimes she doubted her actions so much that she cried herself into sleep. Sometimes she skimmed through texts and books about history and magic. She had nothing to do anymore. With no sentient being left in this realm to interact with, there was no more need for her to do anything at all. Instead she could now simply wander the continent and wonder how life would go on now.

And so she left the desolated cities and went on a long journey by foot. She could always stop by one of her hideouts and rest for the night before resuming her wandering the next day. Her Spear Needle had grown a lot, but for now she was carrying it on her back like a backpack. The rabbit itself seemed to like it as it didn't protest about this treatment.

Last month she finally arrived at the east coast of Atlatan and took an abandoned boat from an old fisher town as she set over to the island she had come from. Though it had been a land uninhabitable for humans for quite some time. Already when Shizuku returned the first time to this land after her exile and losing her child, the dungeon had been to spread or rather to 'leak out' into the outside world. This was becoming very clear when her boat drifted through the mist of an early morning as she saw the outlines of familiar otherworldy plants.

Massive strange looking trees and plants overshadowed everything as the species from YGGDRASIL acted like an invasive one, making it impossible for ordinary woods to grow anymore. The plants from YGGDRASIL were simply too aggressive. Shizuku landed at the old harbor of a town that had been abandonned for more than a century already, before she resumed her journey. Safe for very, very few ruins of former settlements and buildings, most of the land was now covered with a jungle like forest similiar to the one inside the dungeon itself. It didn't spawn monsters, but the monsters that had carried the seeds of these plants to the surface in the first place were feeling very comfortable in this environment.

Probably it wouldn't take very long until Atlatan would also become such a jungle with flying monsters carrying the seeds of these plants to the mainland and with that dungeon before Dartania being beneath the ocean, Shizuku had no idea what that might do to the marine ecosystem, but she didn't really care for that as well.

A wild garden Eden was perhaps not that bad for a description at all for a world that was about to be changed so much by the 3 dungeons and their inhabitants.

The trees had grown very high in their long lives and made it almost impossible for a normal person to traverse through them. Shizuku was not an ordinary Person however. Jumping from trunk to trunk was easy for the arachne. Her spider half was actually really useful for such three dimensional manouvers in the air. Heading towards her destination, the player felt nostalgia well up in her mind.

Then finally, she arrived at a place that almost seemed like a doline in the limestone ground. Inside of it laid the skeleton of a giant dragon, easily 10 meters in height. Plants have start growing on the bones and vines hung from the ribs. At the tail of the dead creature Shizuku saw a familiar stone panel mostly overgrown with vines and moss. This was the place where her journey had begun. The entrance to the Underground Forest.

She was not heading inside though as she sat down on the dragon's skull and took off the Spear Needle as she began petting the creature. And while doing so she had another thought concerning the monsters of this world.

Now that there had been two more dungeons before the coast of Dartania and one in the middle of Bretland, that would continue to spawn monster and leak like this dungeon into the outer world, soon the world would experience its new Age of Chaos. One where monsters would not be spawned by Chaos, but by the dungeons. They would become the next apex predators of this world like mankind had been and maybe they'd become sentient and create a new civilization. Some monsters had the tendency for that after all.

An archeopteryx, a feathered dinosaur like monster landed next to her on the dragon's skull, using one of the horns as ist perch. It hissed and screeched at her, before falling silent as it proceeded to clean ist feathers. Shizuku smiled to herself. Whether it was right or wrong didn't matter anymore. She couldn't change the past anymore. All she could do now was to look forward into the future. And at least she had a world with a nice view to look upon.

Meanwhile, far away from the dungeon stood a lone stone with a bouquet of flowers at its base. A lonely grave in the middle of the forest where once a simple house stood. It's foundations had already been eroded away and Nothing was left of it anymore other than this Stone. It was here where a young arachne named Umi had lived with her mother.

* * *

OC Profile

Name: Shizuku Homura

Epithet: The Arachne, The Spider Woman

Gender: Female

Race: Arachne

Biography: Shizuku was born at the 26th of October in 2096, making her 42 when the game's servers shut down.

As a player of a heteromorphic race in YGGDRASIL she had not many friends or allies within the game.

Many years before Theo was even born, Shizuku had been transported into this world with her newly cleared dungeon all on her own. While she had a house to live in, she also had nothing to fill it with. Everything was like the dungeon had been with the game's settings. No NPCs to help her, no comfort from anyone. The only things she had were what she carried with her. So she kept the dungeon locked when she set out to explore the world. During her period of time the world had been in the last years of the Chaotic Age.

Later she found out that she was on an island in the East of the Atlatan continent and left the island to explore the world.

While facing demons and other creatures of supernatural origin, Shizuku was seen as a demon herself and thus attacked by other people no matter what she said or did due her appearance. When the battles against Chaos became less and less also due the fact that Shizuku helped the humans alongside the werewolves and vampires, the humans expanded almost explosively across the continent. In some time, the people became used to her appearance and noticed that she was no demon bringing calamity and death upon them. In that time the young girl Shizuku was never on Earth bloomed.

However, with the end of fight against chaos came conflicts between the noble families became more aggressive and resulted in minor wars between them, leading to the deaths of dozens. The people turned on one another and whenever they saw Shizuku she became in the eyes of the people a demon or a servant of Chaos. Betrayed by those that once had called themselves her friends she was reminded of mankind's cruel and greedy nature. A young homunculus, that she had created from her own DNA as a daughter, who had grown up alongside normal human children and didn't look at her as if she was some sort of malevolent creature, was brutally slaughtered and dismembered. All that Shizuku found was the mutilated and defiled corpse of the being, that she had once held in her arms as an infant, raised and watch grow and bloom like a flower. Killed by the companions she had spent so much time with and she had trusted so much.

Hatred took a hold in her heart as she killed all residents in the town that she and her daughter had been living in. She had not spared a single person, no matter how old or what gender they were for telling them where she was and doing this to her creaiton. They had all forsaken her and took everything from her. So she took everything from them as well.

When she was finished, she saw mankind no longer with the same eyes. Standing in midst of a ruined town among the corpses of hundreds and the debris of every manmade structure, she only saw it as the remains of a nest of pests that she had exterminated.

It felt right for her. Mankind had forsaken her in exchange for what exactly? An age of war fought for the right to hold the most powerful crest? To be the one to purge Chaos completely off this world? What a joke to her. So if mankind wanted her dead, she'd only return the favor. If all of them were to come after her, she'd simply strike all of them down. She had nothing to lose anymore.

And so she began her journey on the path of vengeance.

Even when the nobles came for a mysterious woman with the power of a crest in the woods to either take it from her or try to seduce her, Shizuku slaughtered every single one of those that dared to come for her and killed every soldier and mercenary that had been send after her. Within this time, she returned to the dungeon and began to train her abilities, waiting for the moment to defeat the lords when they would be the most vulnerable and put an end to the Age of Man.

She became nothing more but a forgotten thought, a fairytale to scare children to not get out at night and most likely she was mistaken for the made up figure of the spider queen of the demon world.

But she didn't just wait for her old enemies to die while she prevailed. Even without subordinates to do her biding, Shizuku roamed the continent of Atlatan in order to eat and gather information.

* * *

Dungeon Profile

Name: Underground Forest

Type: Cave/Forest

Floors: 3 + Surface

Owner: No one (Feral)

Layout: The Underground Forest was originally a rather easy dungeon to clear, made for mid level players. That was also a reason why Shizuku chose this dungeon to be her last adventure in YGGDRASIL, so she could at least look back at one last good memory.

The first Floor took form of a system of tunnels in a cave made of limestone like material. Monsters in form of bats, rats, spiders and wolves commonly spawned on that floor.

On the second floor the name of the dungeon held truth. Through a whole in the wall one entered a large rainforest area (similiar to the 18th Floor of the dungeon in Is it wrong to pick up girls in the dungeon). A large variety of beast and plant type monsters spawn on this floor filled with primeval looking vegetation. Even flying Monsters spawned on this floor.

The third floor was again a cave like system, but bore more semblance to an ancient temple like those of the Maya civilization, the Aztecs or even the old Indian temple city of Ankor Wat. Mostly beast like Mobs spawned here including a few beastmen. The dungeon boss of this dungeon is a Level 80 Panther beastman called Panther King (think about Panther Warrior from Yu-Gi-Oh!).

However, years after the transition the layout of the dungeon began to change or rather the dungeon began to 'leak' into the outer words as seeds and Spores of the plants of the 2nd floor travelled with monsters up to the surface, causing those plants to slowly overgrow the land. The monsters started to reproduce, driving the local People to the brink of extinction. When Shizuku arrived years after the end of the Chaotic Age at the island, the plants had already begun to overgrow the land to the east of Atlatan and the human popluation had dropped near zero, before it was killed completely by the invasive monsters.

* * *

**For all those that are confused about the ages' names, here is a little run down. The names come from the manga and not the anime. **

**The Chaotic Age was the time before crests appeared in the world and came to an end with the human Expansion across the continent with the help of Leon and his crest.**

**The Age of Chaos is the age that the Story takes mostly place in as chaos disasters and monsters still occur and Chaos was not purged from the world yet. **

**The Age of Chaos however is also referring to the entier time between the first emergence of chaos with the downfall of the old civilization to the formation of the Grancrest.**

**The Age of Cosmos (no idea why it's called that instead of the Age of Order) is the age after the Grancrest would be formed with Chaos and all other supernatural things being purged from the world save from the Grancrest itself.**

**I personally admit that I only watched the anime and based it mostly on that instead of the manga or the light novel, which I couldn't find online. It isn't the first time as I also found no full version of The Master of Ragnarök and the Blesser of the Einherja online. I guess some novels simply don't get the popularity others do.**

**Actually this story idea was originally meant to be a full story following Shizuku before, during and after the events of series so more of the filled with hatred and vengeful parent theme would come out. However, I myself couldn't really bring myself to watch Grancrest Senki again due to me being already on the short leash and writting this entire story including the prologue and epilogue to the canon Story would not only have taken a lot of time, but also required me watching the show again as I'd write it down.**

**Also, this chapter is only finished because the idea for this story concepts is actually from the time when I watched teh series when it came out and is mostly copied and pasted here with some alterations to make it fit together. **


	5. Chapter IV: Rewriting History

Chapter IV: Rewriting History (Toujuushi Bestalious)

* * *

It was the year 70 A.D. of an alternative version of Earth when the Roman Empire spread throughout of the European continent. Following the victory over the human nation, Rome began to invade the lands of the demi-humans. It didn't matter to the romans and their legions whether they attacked a band of barbarians and beasts as the Empire called them or peaceful villages that had not a single thing to do with the Empire.

All was to be conquered in the name of the Roman Empire.

Of course there was resistance against Rome's invasions, but in the end the efforts to defend oneself against a force that dominated the known world and its millions of people were futile. It was as if fighting a hydra covered with a seemingly endless number of swords, spears and arrows, that killed, plundered and enslaved all in their wake. Even if a legion was completely wiped out, Rome simply sent at least another one to strike down the enemy while they were exhausted. And so one demi-human nation fell after another as Rome simply expanded as it always had.

In April of the year 88 A.D., the demi-human countries had all been completely wiped out and subjugated by the Empire.

Still there were those fighting Rome, challenging its power and reign. They were not many and no one thought that by any means that they could possibly make a change at all. After all, Rome was the power dominating the known world back then. Because of that, fighting Rome was as if declaring the world your sworn enemy.

No matter who you were, you had no chance to possibly win against Rome. You couldn't run in a world that the Roman Empire dominated. You couldn't hide as the Empire never forgot the faces of its enemies and chased them to the ends of the world if necessary.

It was a time when Rome flourished with prosperity with the price being hundreds of millions of lives that were used as the foundation of this empire. And times like these needed heroes to change the world.

* * *

_10th of May 88 A.D., the southern Alps_

Rumors of a beast that killed the Roman legions as if they were nothing but paper spread from Egypt and became more numerous as it seemed like the creature was rounding the ocean through Germania as it made its way towards Rome.

Standing on a cliff in the snow white peaks of the alps, a being shrouded in a tattered cloak looked down upon a legion of soldiers marching up the mountain path. They had nothing else with them. No bow and quiver for hunting. No sword hilted at the hip to draw it when enemies attacked. Not even a bag for belongings. It was just a person draped in a tattered old cloak.

Behind this person stood a small figure about the same height as a small child. It was a rather ugly person with green skin, pointed ears and a long nose. Unlike the cloaked person this goblin was dressed in a leather tunic and a small cloak made of fur. Behind the two of them one could see smoke rising up into the sky. It was a small village of goblins that had fled into the alps and now lived there. They originally came from the west where once was Gallia or today France. When the legions of Rome came, they fled into the mountains were the terrain was almost impossible to cross with horses and large armies.

"Are you going to attack them?" The child asked the cloaked figure.

It didn't reply nor did it turn around to face the young boy. Instead the opening of the cloak was directed only at the approaching army. These legionaries made the cloaked person ill. Burning down villages, slaughtering the innocent that lived there and those that were unfortunate to survive were taken as slaves to Rome to be sold to anyone with the money to do so. In the worst cases, they were simply left to die in the mines or forced to fight for their lives in the colosseum.

It simply made them furious.

Without a word the cloaked figure leaped off the peak of the mountain, jumping further than any person should be possible to jump, before diving down like a hawk towards the legion. Beneath him the sharp and steep edges of rocks passed them by at a neck-breaking speed as their cloak fluttered wildly in the wind.

All the soldiers had their eyes trained on the path ahead and except for those at the very back saw the cloaked person incoming. The men at the front of the legion only saw a shadow descending on them when looking up, before they suddenly found themselves cut into pieces. Blood and organs dyed the snow red. Screams of panic erupted from the men at the back, seeing their comrades easily cut down despite wearing armor and weapons by a person covered in nothing but a tattered old cloak without any weapon visible.

Getting a hold on themselves, the soldiers drew their own swords as they charged at their enemy, shouting things like "Glory for the Roman Empire" and such.

It was but a one-sided slaughter. The cloaked figures simply slipped through the ranks faster than the naked eye of a human could see as soldiers left and right fell screaming in agony to the ground as large slash wounds appeared on their bodies. Left to bleed out on the ground pathetically or cut into ribbons, it made no difference.

Not a single one of these soldiers had the chance to even raise their sword, shield or spear against their enemy as they all were equal in the eyes of death. And not a single one of them survived.

Once the "battle" was over, the narrow mountain path was overflowing with the corpses of dead human soldiers and the spilled blood had colored the white hangs of the path that led into the depths crimson as if someone had simply tipped over a bucket with red paint. In midst of this stood the cloaked figure, standing on top of the corpses.

"Unbelievable." A voice behind them muttered. Turning around the cloaked person spotted a group of adult goblins armed with spears and bows surrounding an older goblin with a long white beard. Among them was also the child from earlier, which had no weapon. Seeing that they understood that the child must have alarmed the village about the soldiers and the elder of the village took their warriors to assist them.

"He did all of this by himself?"

"What power…"

The goblins muttered among one another as the cloaked figure turned around and walked towards them. Under their feet, bones broke and blood oozed out of wounds in rivers as they made their way up to them. The goblins looked nervous as if not knowing whether to run away or to fight. The presence of this individual was like that of a large predator that left them stunning in awe and fear.

That was until the cloaked person dropped a small leather bag at their feet. The metallic clicking sound it emitted told them that there was money inside. And the bag looked rather full. For a moment the demi-humans simply looked at this in shock and at the cloaked person, before it spoke up.

"Take it. These people won't have any use for it anyway." They said in a deep voice, before turning away.

"Please wait!" The elder said as he reached out and took a few steps forward, but stopped when he saw that he had stepped into the large pool of blood, which had not infiltrated the frozen soil or the snow.

"I'll come back later. You can thank me then. Sayonara." The cloaked person said, before leaving by jumping higher and further than any person the goblins had ever seen as it landed further down in a valley beneath the green canopies of a forest. The demi-humans were left stunned at this, before returning back to their village. They had quite a tale to tell.

* * *

_16th of May 88 A.D., Rome_

"Another legion has disappeared. Tch! What incompetent imbeciles the soldiers these days. They tarnish the glory of Rome like this. Find me the officer of this legion. Tell him to either send a larger legion and force those rebels into submission. Otherwise his head will roll." A slim man said with a narrow face and a hawk like nose said as he lazily sat upon a throne in a room filled with luxury. His body was covered by elegant and luxurious clothes and a white toga was draped over them with a golden metal ornament on his left shoulder with a lion head on it.

The most notable feature about this person was perhaps the golden laurel wreath on top of his short black hair.

He was Domitianus, the emperor of Rome in the year 85 A.D. While his father Vespasianus had lead the empire through the conquest of the human territories, it was Domitianus who finished his father's work and had directed the empire throughout the invasion of the demi-humans.

"Of course Emperor Domitianus." The person before the emperor said. He was like the emperor dressed in elegant clothes, however all their beauty seemed to have disappeared because of the man dressed in them. He was a fat man with short and glossy blonde hair. His skin especially on his round neck and his double chin quivered with every tone escaping his throat as he bowed to the emperor. With hurried footsteps the fat noble left the emperor's palace to carry out the task given to him.

The emperor sighed once the other man had closed the doors behind him.

"How annoying. Shouldn't these wild beasts have learned their lesson already that challenging Rome is suicide?" He said taking a golden chalice filled with the finest wine in his hand and taking a sip. Around him absolutely everything was marvelous for this age. Clean white marble pillars without even a single crack or a speck of dust in them, carpets and banners made from the finest materials, wooden furniture crafted exclusively for the emperor and the emperor alone.

In such an environment most rulers would only find boredom. Luxury that seemed to be god-like for this time and not a single error being visible were like a golden cage. Sure, one was the one in charge of the mightiest super power in the known world and one could do whatever one wanted whenever and wherever one wanted to. Perhaps this sort of lifestyle had caused a certain trait of Domitianus' personality to form.

"Well more fights mean more blood to be spilled. After all, with conquest come new slaves and more exciting battles in the arena. That truly is the most fun of it." Domitianus smiled wickedly as he gazed up at one of the red banners in his throne room with a golden eagle being stitched into it, the symbol of Rome's greatness and power. The emperor himself was a sadist. Not only did he found delight and amusement in the suffering of others, but his favorite thing to do was to let capable fighters in the arena fight to their deaths just for the amusement of the people that visited it and of course himself.

Fights that were just for show between roman gladiators where there was no death, bored the emperor, which didn't mean he couldn't get one. Rome had captured many beasts and demi-humans as well as tons of slaves to fight one another in the arena. And when he could, Domitianus was not the kind of person, that thought of themselves to be too good to exploit emotions of the fighters. It was way too amusing to let parent and child or old childhood friends kill one another. The audience liked it and so did he himself.

This was the sadistic tyranny of Emperor Domitianus.

And no one of the people of Rome saw it as a problem.

Meanwhile, far outside of Rome within a forest stood a cloaked figure as they watched the metropolis before them shine brightly even in the dead of the night.

Looking up the figure saw the crescent moon hanging above them like an omen.

A hand covered in fur with short claws on the fingers grabbed a pendant around their neck. It was a strange round symbol that seemed almost tribal in nature.

"Soon." They said as they disappeared behind the tree line.

* * *

_17th of May 88 A.D._

The sun rose over the Mediterranean Sea as a new day began in the streets of Rome. Buildings made out of marble and the floor being covered with stones as pavement for the people to walk upon as they were dressed in togas and clothes, going after their daily businesses. Merchants praised their goods shouting across the place to attract potential customers. Children played around, while adults went to their work.

Chatting, smiling and laughing the romans seemed to ignored the tall figure wearing an old tattered cloak.

It was quite a bit breathtaking to be honest. Entering the city had been very easy for them. None of the guards had seen them going in and no one was asking the guards to remove them, despite their attire sticking out quite a lot in this sea of white robes. Never before had they been in such a big place within the Empire and could only picture it in their mind's eye. And here they stood in Rome.

The capital of the world.

The heart of the Roman Empire.

Something the robes figure noticed immediately was the lack of demi-humans. Since the human invasion their numbers have been reduced to only a few settlements out there, but to think to see no one here when so many slaves were taken to Rome itself was quite strange.

Unless one took into consideration that they could also be used as labor in mines and gladiators in the arena. Immediately the cloaked person felt the urge to punch the closest armored person they saw when they continued to walk through the many alleys and streets.

They didn't really need a map, because they already knew where they had to go to.

Just 5 minutes later, the cloaked person was gone from the streets as soon as it had appeared. They were not carried off by guards or the like. Instead they headed to the one place that not even the romans themselves were looking after on a regular base.

Just a few meters below the surface the cloaked person stood holding a torch to light up his environment: the sewers of Rome. As a large city and the capital of a great empire it had a large sewer system to make sure that wastewaters were transported out of the city. After all, thousands of people still ate, drank and excreted at the same time. Not to mention the amount of garbage they produced. All had to land somewhere.

But the sewers were not uninhabited. Down here the figure noticed many demi-humans with extremely thin bodies, making the ribs and bones visible as if the skin was only draped over their blank skeletons, leaning against the pillars and having only very few clothes to cover themselves, which were more like patchwork than anything that one could call clothing.

Another wave of disgust washed over this person as he felt like tearing off someone's head and clenched his hands so tightly one could hear his joints.

"Boss! You are finally here!" A happy voice tore him out of his mind as he saw someone approach him through the darkness of the sewers. Stepping into the light of the torch was an orc clad in armor and having a curved sword at his waist.

"What's with that getup? Wasn't your mission to spy instead of walking around like a serial killer?" The robed figure said as it looked at the orc. Orcs were surely not the prettiest bunch among the demi-human races. They were ugly, had tusk like canines and had a tribal lifestyle.

However, the roman propaganda also listed a savage lifestyle to them involving plundering, enslaving and killing hostages for their gods. None of that was true or only in exceptions as the orcs this person had seen during his journeys were mostly peaceful people that were not only more civilized than most legionaries when pillaging a settlement, but also had a lived a simple life. They worked on fields and grew crops, they hunted wild animals and they rose their children just like humans did.

But this guy was really the spitting image of a savage orc. The only thing missing now would be him riding on the back of a giant boar that had metal blades put on its tusks and a war banner on his back.

The orc laughed sheepishly as they scratched the back of their head.

"Haha. Sorry boss. I just wanted to be ready for the case that you arrive." He said. The cloaked person sighed at this.

"Is everything ready?" He asked.

"Uh, yeah. So far we got everything in position."

"Are you sure about it?" The cloaked person asked.

"Huh? What do you mean-?" Suddenly the orc found himself grabbed on the shoulder by the very same man he was talking to as he had instantly disappeared from his eyes.

"You are really a dense guy, you know that?" The person said letting his subordinate go. "Tell everyone to get ready on my signal. It's going down in a few hours." He said.

"A few hours?! Shouldn't there have been more time boss?" The orc asked completely shocked at this.

"No. This will happen today. I can't stand this city even more by every minute passing by and seeing more of… "this"." They said looking around all the starved demi-humans, which looked at the two of them now with undivided attention.

"Then how are we going to…?" The orc asked but was interrupted.

"Everything has been arranged already. You will now go to every station and tell the people to wait for the signal. Until then you are on standby. No one does anything. That shouldn't be a problem for someone with your speed, now should it Gorgh?" The cloaked person said. Gorgh nodded.

"Sure thing boss. I'll be going." He said as he took off into the darkness only to hit a pillar and fall down again. "I'm fine!" He said before leaving for real.

The person stood there for a few moments, before he turned around to leave when he heard something from afar.

"Boss! What is the signal?" Gorgh shouted from further away. The cloaked person scoffed at this. One could basically hear the smile in his voice as he replied.

"That would be when the screams are starting."

* * *

_2 hours later_

The colosseum erupted in cheers for the umpteenth time that day as the audience roared while two people were fighting one another to the death. The stadium was packed to the brim with people.

In his private loge, the emperor watched as another well trained human champion cut down another demi-human slave. The audience roared up in victory, but the emperor was unfazed. Domitianus knew how a fight between a steeled warrior and a mere beast would end.

Therefore, there was no excitement in watching such a boring fight when the outcome was already decided beforehand. This fight was solely to amuse the masses.

Blood splattered across the sands of the arena as the loser fell lifelessly to the ground. The victor towered over the fallen enemy for a moment before letting out a cry of victory.

"Ladies and Gentlemen! The beast slayer Quintus has killed his 20th opponent and still stands undefeated! Truly a symbol of Rome's might!" The announcer roared as the audience cheered in agreement. The gladiator in question wore only the standard gladiator clothes with a helmet that masked his face. Quintus spread his arms and let out a battle cry for the audience.

In that moment something impacted into the sands and caused a cloud of dust to fly up, causing a few people to scream in terror at this. The emperor himself stood up and had his eyes fixed on the cloud.

"What's the meaning of this?" He shouted at the fat noble from yesterday. The man looked frightened to the bones himself as he shook violently like jelly. Domitianus quickly fixed his gaze at the cloud again when a large silhouette appeared in the cloud. Stepping out of it was a large person draped in a cloak.

The people murmured among one another as they saw this. They had just appeared out of nowhere. They couldn't have flown since they had no wings. But the people saw them fall out the sky. That left to possible options.

One, they climbed up the colosseum's walls and dropped down from above. The fact that the entire arena was occupied didn't make that impossible in the slightest. Even though every place was taken, everyone had looked down at the arena, taking their attention away from their backs.

And then there was option two, they jumped. Without entering the colosseum, they also could have jumped from outside into the arena.

Still both options seemed to be ridiculous. The colosseum was 48 meters in height, 188 meters in length and 156 meters in width. The battleground at the center was 54 meters wide and 86 meters long. That means that if this person would have taken a jump from outside to their current location would not only have needed to rise above 50 meters but also jump more than 50 meters in length. Ant that was if they stood right at the wall outside.

An impossible feat for any known living being in the known world whether they were human or demi-human. And yet it was standing there, brushing off the dust from its cloak with one hand. Each finger had sharp claws and the appendage was covered in beige yellow fur like that of a lion.

"_Good grief. The landing could have gotten better. And I actually was on the wrong side of the building judging by the loge of that guy over there. Maybe I should have stayed a day or two to visit before. Oh well. Done is done._" The demi-human stranger said in a language none of the present people could understand.

Immediately the audience reacted to the interruption of their bloody games with shouting and throwing whatever they had their hands on at the stranger.

"Who does this beast think they are?!"

"Out with him!"

"What hideous creature! It covers its face to not shame itself!"

"Kill this disgusting thing!"

"Put it into a cell!"

"Torture!"

"Kill it!"

The cheers of the audience from earlier were replaced with jeers and shouting, demanding the inhumane being to be either executed or imprisoned. The cloaked figure didn't know what to say to be honest.

On one hand he knew that this was only as natural for them. To think they have every right to rule the world and everything between Heaven and Earth and thus looked down on every other sentient being. It wasn't like he was unfamiliar with that picture. If he had to honestly count every time he was insulted for not being what others liked, he could honestly not tell the truth, because it had been a few hundred times too much.

On the other hand, there had been this tiny spark of hope that there was some sort of… well humanity in them that they would look further than just the tip of their own nose, but it appeared that this was not the case. Whatever hope he still had left just died in that moment.

The cloaked figure let out a sad sigh at this. In that moment the audience became silent. The throwing of objects ceased. The person looked around and spotted Domitianus, who was at his loge's balcony and raised his hands, making everyone fall silent.

"It seems we have an uninvited guest who wishes to test themselves in the arena. Normally, such behavior would mean execution immediately." An announcer said. The audience roared up in anger once more. "However, our emperor Domitianus has decided to let them fight in the arena to show their worth in a fight. For this Quintus will be assisted by others. If they survive they may live and explain themselves before the emperor. All hail Domitianus, the Merciful."

Cheers of "All hail the emperor.", "All hail Domitianus." and so on filled the air like roaring thunder as the gates of the arena opened and more gladiators stepped out. Rattling chains, twisting short swords in their hands or banging them against shields, they all were ready to fight. To be honest, not for a single moment the cloaked person was surprised about this outcome. The romans loved good shows and apparently they had grabbed the opportunity by the hair.

"_Well, if they want a show they can have one._" He thought as he began walking towards the gladiators that already started to spread out to attack him from all sides. Still he kept walking with steady steps towards the emperor's loge. Quintus and his goons were not important for him. Only _that man_ mattered.

The gladiators were a bit shocked to see that their opponent was unfazed by their numbers and size. Normally when just ordinary and unfortunate slaves were thrown into the arena, they cowered by the sheer size of the famous gladiators or the gleaming of their weapons. Yet this one was completely unfazed. It was odd and new for them and deep down they were scared.

Not wasting another moment, the gladiators roared and charged at their opponent, who didn't seem to mind them as he was behaving as if he was going for a walk in a garden. The first one to reach him swung their sword at the figure's head.

The sound of flesh being sliced and blood spurting caused the fighter to smile. However, then their joy disappeared as they noticed that for some reason they couldn't feel their arms. No, not just the arms, but their legs and their bodies as a whole as well. They tried to look around, but couldn't move their neck until they noticed the cloaked figure walking past a headless body before everything became dark. The realization hit the man to late as it was their own body.

The next closest fighter stopped at this. He had never taken his eyes from his opponent. He had not seen his cut off the other fighter's head or even draw a weapon in the first place. Yet suddenly the other man's head was sent flying through the air as their body was still in the sword swinging pose, before collapsing forward.

"What was that?!"

"He just beheaded that gladiator without moving!"

The audience was caught in astonishment. Before the second fighter could react that cloaked person stood next to them. In that moment he realized the futility of this fight. In desperation he wanted to scream, but nothing came out as he was suddenly pushed into the arena's wall, breaking it in the process, before falling unconscious.

Now there were four more fighters to go. One with a net and a gladius. One with a sword and shield. One with a morning star. And finally Quintus with a large broad sword. And all of them looked like they had lost their will to fight as their legs shook like jelly before him. Still the three nameless gladiators surrounded the cloaked demi-human.

A net was thrown over him. For a moment he thought that he could play their game as he pretended to struggle to tear the net in half and purposefully fell on his stomach. As he landed in the sand, the other three saw their opportunity to strike and came down with battle cries upon him.

"_Just kidding._" He said in the next moment when he got on his feet and jumped backwards, making all three fighters miss. While they looked confused at this, the challenger had torn the net in half with bare hands and now stood behind all three of them.

In the blink of an eye, all three of them were sent flying through the arena, vomiting blood as they landed harshly on the ground. The challenger just resumed his walk after this step backwards.

Quintus on the other hand, shook violently. Not in fear however, but in anger. A demi-human had just appeared and mocked him and the others by simply challenging them all. His very existence was an insult to Quintus. So the beast slayer roared in fury and slashed his sword at the figure.

The blade was caught in one hand and broke as if it was made out of glass. Quintus didn't care. There was more on the line than just a fight. It was his pride and honor as a member of the superior race of humanity, that drove him to attack like a berserker. And so though he had no weapon anymore, Quintus began to furiously punch his opponent. His body was trained under harsh conditions and no one in the gladiator school ever managed to defeat him. This was going to be the end.

But when realization dawned him, it felt like he had punched a wall made of solid steel. Not only that but his knuckles were bleeding already, staining the cloak of the stranger and the sand below. It made no sense at all. He, Quintus, killer of demi-human barbarians and champion of the arena, who easily managed to hit someone in a suit of armor hard enough to make them vomit blood and break bones with ease, was hurt from their own attack.

"RAH! WHY WON'T YOU DIE!?" He screamed in anger right into his opponent's face. Said person only tilted their head to the side and looked at them.

"Excuse me. Did you do something?" They asked. Now that made Quintus' go berserk. Not to wound an enemy was one thing, but to not even be recognized was shaming his name and title.

"You damn-AAAAUUUUUHHHH!" Quintus then let out a high pitched and very… unmanly scream as his opponent had kicked him right in the crotch. The sound of something breaking resonated through the arena and made the audience wince in phantom pain.

Staggering at first and clutching his crotch, Quintus dropped to his knees and feel to the side as the champion and beast slayer was reduced whimpering and crying piece of flesh and bones as it withered in pain from its wounded pride as a man.

The audience was silent. The announcer was silent. Not even the emperor uttered a single word at this picture. The cloaked person simply kept walking forward until reaching the ground before the emperor's loge.

Then he grabbed the fabric of what was covering his body and threw it away, revealing his face to everyone. He seemed to be a humanoid feline of some sort. Its body was covered in gold brown fur similar to a lion, though the being also possessed darker patches on its body similar to a jaguar.

That was actually the race this being belonged to.  
Werejaguar. A lycanthropic race of humanoid felines.

And then the audience exploded in applause.

"UNBELIEVABLE! ABSOLUTELY UNBELIEVABLE! THE STRANGER HAS BEATEN A WHOLE TEAM OF ELITE GLADIATORS ALONE!" The announcer sounded like he was going to go crazy at this point. The cheers and praise from the audience drowned once more the arena, before the emperor once again silenced everyone.

"Well fought. Truly this was a spectacle." Domitianus praised with a wicked smile as suddenly a large axe was dropped into the arena. The emperor did the famous thumb down posture at that.

"I'l give you a choice now. Kill these opponents you have defeated, yet kept alive. Then I shall allow you to serve me personally as my bodyguard." The audience gasped in shock. "If you refuse to do so, you shall be imprisoned and fight until the end of your life in this arena." The audience cheered to that, making that smug smirk on the emperor's face grow even wider. "Now then, what shall it be?"

The werejaguar stood silent for a moment, before something happened no one had expected.

"Pff… Hehehehe. Hahahahaha!" The werejaguar began to laugh as if the emperor had told him some sort of joke. For a moment he laughed, before he looked down for a moment. Then he rose his head again and replied with a voice cold as ice. "I refuse."

"What?!" The emperor almost fell backwards as he staggered by just feeling a wave of intensified bloodlust wash over him. It was not just him. Everyone felt this bloodlust, causing some to faint or even to vomit.

"I'm not some circus animal for your or their entertainment. Nor am I some shield that you can use to hide yourself behind. But most importantly, I'm not some spineless worm who takes orders from some coward like yourself, who enjoys watching people kill one another, but never has taken up the sword themselves in their entire life." The feline said as soldiers poured out the gates, surrounding the being with spears pointed at him.

"Hear me, people of Rome." His voice was suddenly amplified as the dust around him was blown away by just the shockwave his voice generated. The soldiers stood rooted to their spots, unable to move or to stop trembling. The shaking of the many bodies in close space to one another created a rattling sound of metal plates hitting one another and shifting against each other, which filled the entire arena. The feline humanoid stomped on the ground and pointed at the emperor himself as if accusing him of something.

"I am Beast King Mekongawa and I've come with only one intention here. I desire no wealth or glory like the greedy lot of yourselves. My goal is far simpler. And that is to end the tyranny of Rome over the non-human sentient beings!" Mekongawa roared again as he announced his goal to the entirety of Rome. Domitianus now completely lost his temper at this.

"W-WHAT ARE YOU DOING!? KILL HIM! KILL HIM NOW! DON'T LET THAT FILTHY BEAST DRAW ANOTHER BREATH! BRING ME HIS HEAD!" The emperor screamed mortified as Mekongawa's pair of eyes seemed to pierced through his soul. The werejaguar stood there, chuckling as the soldiers around him regained their senses and thrusted their weapons forward.

"Let the hunt begin." He muttered to himself as he jumped towards the emperor and landed on his balcony within the blink of an eye. The emperor had no time to react as the clawed hand grabbed him by the shoulder and threw him into the arena on top of dozens of the hundred confused guards that barely had stopped themselves from impaling one another.

"Away! Get away I say!" The emperor screamed, pushing the soldiers away as he barely managed to stand. Looking up he saw something he had not expected. Standing on the balcony, the werejaguar's chest armor had sprouted a large pair of bronze colored wings.

The werejaguar was a mythical creature of the native Mesoamericans. They were originally not humanoid jaguars like one would picture werewolves or other creatures, but rather more human looking beings. In YGGDRASIL however, they were put together with the humanoid beasts like werewolves and thus became a race of humanoid cats.

But werewolves were not the only race they were associated with. There was another, much more menacing thing than its relative. Tezcalipoca, the Aztec god of the night, war and strife among other things. As such werejaguars from YGGDRASIL could actually be called somewhat divine beings. And Mekongawa luckily showed it with this spare piece of armor.

He landed in the arena's sand again as the wings folded back, while crossing his arms, looking at the pathetic excuse of an emperor in his eyes and threw the axe that he had been given to execute his defeated opponents to Domitianus.

"Rejoice, your highness. I'll give you the chance to fight back at least. Though, the only thing you'll receive today will be the despair you had so much fun to watch over and over again yourself." He said. Domitianus didn't even dare to touch the weapon's hilt as he scrambled away.

"Out of my way! Kill him already!" Upon this desperate cry for help the soldiers attacked. Mekongawa couldn't help but smirk as all of this made his blood boil. Only a second later screams tore through the throats of the audience as the battlefield of the arena became a slaughterhouse.

The screams of the audience echoed throughout the entire city. People turned their heads in fright and shock, wondering what was going on, while soldiers and guards in the city rushed to the arena.

At that moment, multiple large holes opened within the pavement of the city, swallowing people into the darkness. For a moment everything was still, but then Gorgh and many other demi-humans clad in armor and armed with swords and bow and arrow poured into the city.

"Let's get them boys!" He shouted as he crossed blades with the first guard that tried to strike him down.

While chaos erupted within the city, the guards at the walls looked in shock as they saw Rome under attack. With their eyes glued to the city, they noticed to late how other demi-humans, an army in the hundreds had reached the walls and opened fire upon the disturbed defenders.

It all had been just part of a plan. An attack from the inside and an attack from the outside, while their leader easily overwhelmed all in his way by himself. For that reason the forces had waited right before Rome in the shadows of the forests, while a smaller unit had already infiltrated the sewers of the city to create more chaos and disturb the soliders within the walls.

"The great beast god Mekongawa protects us! Onward! To death!" A centaur shouted as the others joined with vigor.

Back at the arena, blood and gore flew through the air like never before. With simply swipes of his claws, Mekongawa killed every soldier in his way that stood between him and the Emperor Domitianus.

He spotted the man desperately trying to climb up the walls to the lower audience, but with his untrained body, he couldn't even pull himself over the ledge. As Mekongawa saw this he grabbed the axe he had thrown to Domitianus and threw it again. This time however, the weapons's blade embedded itself in the wall Domitianus tried to climb and cleaved right through his right arm.

"AAAAHHHHH! MY ARM!" The emperor screamed mortified, looking at the stump where his arm used to be a moment ago. Blood streamed out in fountains, smearing the wall and clothes Domitianus wore crimson. Then a large shadow appeared above him. Gasping in fear, the emperor could only watch in horror as Mekongawa descended from the sky with his metal wings, grabbed him by the head and slammed his face into the wall, before taking off again.

"Enjoy the right, because hell will look a lot tamer than this!" With that said, the werejaguar threw Domitianus at his loge on which he slammed down with his back, breaking his spine completely. But Mekongawa wasn't done yet. The emperor had yet to die. Quickly he looked around and saw that the audience had fled the arena now completely in a haste. Nothing but soldiers were remaining.

"THIS IS YOUR END!" He roared as he descended upon Domitianus with neck breaking speed and punched him as hard as he could. Not just the loge caved in at this, but the entirety of the colosseum's southern side began to collapse. The tremors were so strong, that the people outside and the soldiers on the battlefield fell on the ground and the lower floors of the arena where fighters and beasts were kept in cells, rumbled from the shock and dust fell from the ceiling.

When the dust settled down, the people saw the destruction, Mekongawa had inflicted with just one powerful punch fueled by unparalleled rage. When people saw what was left, they were speechless. Their grand amphitheater was reduced to a ruin. Soldiers were killed asif they were nothing. And the emperor's body before Mekongawa was reduced to nothing more than a bloody stain on the debris of the colosseum alongside the crumbled golden laurel wreath.

None of the people could speak a single word at this moment. The pillars of their reality crumbled as the truth before their eyes began to seep through. Their emperor had been slain by a demihuman, who managed to fight back against the dozens and hundreds of soldiers, that had come to stop him.

For a moment it seemed like time stood still, but then someone among the soldiers shouted something too far away for Mekongawa to be heard.

"For the empire!" The soldiers yelled charging forward. Mekongawa sighed at this.

"So this is how it's going to be. Fine them. Let's see how far your useless pride will carry you." Mekongawa said with his claws ready to tear through flesh and armor again.

* * *

_A few weeks later_

By the end of that day, the people found it hard to recognize the city from the sky as the dusk dyed the sky crimson and orange, while flames consumed the wooden buildings close to the colosseum. People screamed in fright as freed demi-human gladiators fought against the soldiers. The corpses of mostly humans began to pile up on the ground, covering it like the stone tiles beneath them as they slowly realized that this was a fight, they couldn't possibly win.

During all of this fighting, the demi-human forces under Mekongawa had mostly only made their opponents unable to fight further to reduce the number of deaths as well as helped to evacuate the fleeing citizens.

Hundreds had died on both sides, but in the end the victor was clearly the invading forces of the werejaguar Beast King Mekongawa.

In the year 88 A.D. on the 17th of May, Rome was engulfed in flames.

After the end of the battles throughout Rome, the inhabitants were wondering what would happen with them, now that the beings they had believed as pathetic, filthy beasts and barbarians would do to them. Surprisingly for them and the demi-humans, Mekongawa ordered his troops to immediately start with cleaning up after the battle. Repairs were to be done immediately and missed people were to come to selected locations throughout the metropolis to ensure to let the relatives know what happened to family and friends lost during this chaos.

At the same time, slaves were released from their owners immediately and given the needed time and resources to recover from months and years of inhumane conditions. As for those that didn't agree with Mekongawa's no slave policy, they were stripped off their titles and rights and exiled to outer provinces of the greatly destabilized Roman Empire.

He also forbad anyone to use humans as slaves as well as that would only breed the same sort of conflict between demi-humans and humans all over again. This was met with opposition from the demi-human ranks this time and some crafty humans even tried to manipulate their new fellow equals to fight their leader to destabilize the situation, but anyone who knew who powerful the werejaguar was in truth gave up the idea of fighting him when seeing the ruins of the colosseum.

After that there were several trials against slave owners and slave traders for stealing the freedom of sentient beings that were not less worth than humans, which some of them violently countered with calling the demi-humans and Beast King Mekongawa things such as filthy, lesser beings, monsters and abominations. Most of them were imprisoned where they would spend the rest of their days.

Within days the message of Rome's fall had reached all provinces of the Empire and many ships of demi-humans arrived at the capital to at least thank Mekongawa for what he had done and join his force. Only after weeks, merchants returned to Rome and surprisingly the new customers they found in demi-humans rather than merchandise to sell as slaves caused quite a lot of money flowing into their hands.

It was a bit awkward at first, but slowly both parties were getting used to one another to rebuild the world around them to a place where they all could live in, while messages of chaos further increased with every passing day.

Mekongawa knew that this was just the beginning. People would now seize their chances and rise against Rome in rebellion. Not to mention that the Roman legions would be called back to retake Rome in the name of their falling empire. But Mekongawa knew that when these thousands of soldiers would come, he'd be there, waiting for them to come and challenge him.

Plus, this victory was already worth it. Well it was not a true victory yet as Beast King Mekongawa looked at the horizon where many returning Roman legions had gathered together to besiege the city they came to take back. He let out a soundless sigh at this, before he spread his wings and took to the sky.

On that day, a founding member of Ainz Ooal Gown changed the course of history of the world.

* * *

Character Profile

Name: Beast King Mekongawa

Epithet: Beast King

Race: Werejaguar

Gender: Male

Biography: A member of the infamous heteromorphy only guild Ainz Ooal Gown. He appeared in the year 86 somewhere in Egypt at the Nile river during the events of Roman expansion to south of Africa. Witnessing firsthand the cruelty and racism of the roman troops, Mekongawa went to attack Rome and its emperor.

However, seeing all the romans had done, the player instead of simply flying over the Mediterranean Sea to Rome, he travelled around it while gathering more and more demi-humans that were willing to fight for their freedom. Behind the player gathered a large force of rebels, which partly infiltrated the capital and partly worked for the freedom of their fellow demi-humans.

It didn't take really for them to see Mekongawa as their lord and savior, though the Werejaguar keeps denying that he's a god, despite the fact that his race does have a connection to a god. That was the beginning of Mekongawa's movement, which later became his army.

* * *

**Sure sucks to be called a god, when you can't even truly deny it, doesn't it? After all, this interpretation of Mekongawa looks like a demi-human but is actually a heteromorph and thus is immortal.**

**Thanks for reading this chapter and I hope you liked it.**

**I just recently discovered Toujuushi Bestalious for myself and I apologize if the further chapters of the manga will reveal mistakes being made by myself. However, when I read it I just thought to myself "This would make a fine addition to my collection." And so this chapter just came out of my mind. I was immediately into it and quickly wrote everthing down despite the fact that I was actually planning on making the next chapter for this series be with Evolve, but this was much better than that.**

**I know that I should have waited with this one until more chapters come out or until Volume 14 of Overlord would be released for the case that he gets revealed, but I just had this idea and the text basically wrote itself afterwards.**

**It would have been more historically accurate of course if it would have been Ulbert instead as the Roman Deity of Forests, fields, farmers and their cattle was Faunus, the Roman equivalent to the Greek God Pan, but he is already called Beast King and I wanted to do something other than a lion so I took instead of the king of animals the king of the jungle that even hunts down crocodiles.**

**For those that didn't get it, when Mekongawa spoke in _italic _in the arena, he was speaking in Japanese.**

**So what do you think about this interpretation of this canon character, whose true face has yet to be revealed?**

**I'll hopefully see you next time. Until then have a nice day.**


	6. Chapter V: Oceanborn Awakening

Chapter V: Oceanborn Awakening (Evolve)

* * *

The planet Shear.

For most people in the galaxy, a planet that only was truly important due to possessing vast amounts of resources. Covered mostly by lush jungles and oceans, the planet was inhabited by a large variety of alien wildlife, from which most species were aggressive and very dangerous to humans. In such an enviornment even the herbivores of the ecosystem, while usually docile, could deal significant damage to predators to defend themselves and thus were also very dangerous when provoked.

Still, mankind managed to colonise the planet, though most of the planet remained untouched and had yet to be claimed. Life wasn't the easiest on a planet where most creatures could easily make a colonist their next meal, but people managed to get by as large facilities were erected to supply the colonists with energy and food and to harvest the resources.

For some time there had been a relatively stable peace on the planet when people learned to adapt to their new harsh environment and work hard everyday to keep everything running. There was after all no reason for fights between the colonists. It wasn't like there were different nations that tried to gain rescources or power over the planet to begin with. Just a bunch of companies that might compete for harvesting the natural resources at best.

That all changed however when the monsters appeared.

Seemingly out of nowhere, a variety of large predatory alien species had suddenly appeared on the planet, destroying entire biomes and attacking facilities and colonists without any sort of mercy or hesitation. With a seemingly insatiable hunger, they invaded Shears's diverse ecosystems and killed whatever was unlucky to cross their path, devouring the fauna and as a result of that growing in size and power, while their numbers kept rising. Conventional weapons were basically harmless for them as normal bullets simply bounced off their skin and with their strength and abilities they toppled entire buildings to the ground, wiping settlements off the map in a matter hours.

Not to mention that the powers that each individual monster held in ist body was more than enough to wipe out most units of the stationated troops on the planet within a heart beat. Whatever defenses mankind brought up, it either ended up being killed and eaten when it was unlucky enough to be organic or turned into a piece of scrap metal if it was robotic.

At first the government of the planet had tried to contain the problem, but more and more monsters poured out of nowhere across the planet, destroying everything in their path as the death toll rose into the hundred thousands and millions. As mankind lost more and more ground against the unstoppable tide of monsters, the government of the Shear colony decided to give up the planet and execute a planet-wide evacuation.

Over the course of the following weeks, large transport ships arrived at the planet's orbit and evacutated the civilians as the defense forces tried to hold the line as Long as possible. A handful of ships had already left the planet, each with thousands of people on board, but there were still some left. Even with their advanced technology it was impossible to just evacuate the entire population of a planet.

So the government hired a group of the best alien hunters and mercenaries under the leadership of the famous Wiliam Cabot to assist the evacutation efforts. Within the 5 days remaining to the last evacuation they would take care of the monster problem as good as they could before making sure that the last evacuation ship would leave the planet.

The job was by far not an easy one. When even the entirety of the planet's military forces had failed to contain the monster invasion, the chances that this group of 12 could do any real change were 0. This was a fact that even Cabot was aware himself. Still if they didn't take up their arms against these monsters, there would be nothing standing between them and the innocent colonists. They'd provide the back up for the fleeing people, while they would most likely die doing so, but it was just a most likely.

No one had an idea how things would end. Not with all that chaos on a planet that was mostly unexplored. And the planet still had secrets...

* * *

While the continents of Shear were covered with either thick and lush jungles, dry and sandy canyons and even frozen wastelands, the planet was not completely covered by land. Oceans existed on Shear as well, though most people would rather not go swimming as the most bodies of water on the planet were occupied by aggressive wildlife like the dinosaur-like Tyrant, which hunted like a enormous crocodile in lakes and rivers, or the flesh eating Canyon Eels, that were known for stripping a person to the bones in a matter of moments.

Because of that and other ferocious marine predators, most of Shear's oceans remained untouched by mankind and just like the oceans on Earth when they had remained unexplored for centuries.

Only a couple of hundreds of meters away from the coast line of a lush green jungle biome swam a large Leviathan, a mosasaur-like alpha predator of Shear's marine food chain. The creatures sharp teeth gleamed a little in the water as it swam down deeper, distancing itself from the coast. The creature's body was more than 5 meters in length and it was still a juvenile. Fishes of various sizes and cephalopods fled in the presence of the predator as it swam further. It's eyes scanned the water for suitable prey as it kept moving close to the floor, before moving up again as it suddenly sensed danger. As soon as it pulled up its instincts told the creature that the danger was over, yet it kept swimming higher up into the open water, while accelerating to escape whatever the danger was it had sensed.

From down below one could see how it swam further into the ocean. As for the reason why even this mighty predator was forced to flee, it had something to do with the seabed. Not much further from where it pulled up was one particular object, laying on top of the sandy ocean floor.

It looked like the shell of some species of turban snails. Since these creatures would have been devoured by the native wildlife of the planet it was already unlikely for this species of Earth to somehow settle down on this planet. That plus the fact that no ship from Earth ever directly came into the Far Arm of the galaxy made the existence of this particular shell even weirder. And it couldn't have come with water from some scientist as water was sterilized for the transportation or frozen solid to prevent it from becoming bad nor were biological waste products simply discarded into the wilderness of an unknown planet like that.

The shell laid there undisturbed as it looked like a cone with many spikes and an opening resembling a mouth with sharp teeth. It could have looked even a like inviting for those hermit crabs, that would have used such shells on Earth to protect their soft bodies. In these depths only few predators actually hunted on the ground and those who did usually didn't even spared the shell a glance.

The reason for that however was not the spikes around it, but the assemble of remains of fishes and other marine creatures around the shell such as an incomplete skeleton of a fully grown Leviathan half submerged in the sand. Itself was not longer than an adult human's pinky finger, but with this many remains gathered around it, it was clear that this was not a place someone would want to be.

Then suddenly the shell moved. It rocked from side to side a little at first, before it actually started rolling around the ocean floor in small circles, before it shook again and the owner appeared. However, from the opening came no fish or crab or any marine creature one would expect. Instead a long appendage with sharp claws at the end came out of the much smaller shell, defying all physical laws of nature as the opening seemed to stretch itself bigger to allow whatever this was to get out. Its skin was smooth and black with a metallic blueish tint almost like the skin of an eel. For a moment it remained there on the ground unmoving. Then started to make its way to the shore as the arm dragged the shell across the ground. Grabbing the sandy ground, it dragged itself forward without a pause, leaving only marks were the fingers had burrowed into the soft sediment and a linear trace where the shell was dragged over the floor.

Even though marine predators like the Leviathan saw how the shell dragged itself forward, they didn't attempt to attack it. Instead they fled in a panic, sensing the potential danger. Even benthic organisms that could only move very slowly or not at all suddenly found themselves with the urge to get as far away from this small unassuming thing as possible as their feet took them away as fast as they could. The shell ignored them as it simply kept heading for the land in a straight line.

Finally after minutes of dragging itself forward with its arm, the shell reached the shore and dragged itself out of the waters, before moving further away from the shoreline and coming to a halt. The opening of the shell seemed to stretch itself even further now as something far too large to fit into such a small shell emerged from within. Following the outstretched arm, shoulder and head emerged first, before the being dragged the rest of itself out and stood up. Standing on the shore between land and sea on two clawed feet with a height over a little more than 15 meters was a creature with two large muscular arms. A pair of bat like wings grew on the back alongside a large sail looking like the back fin of a fish. Its head looked like an octopus with a bulbous large head, two pairs of glowing orange-yellow eyes without any irises and a mouth covered with dozens of thick tentacles. The skin had no scales or carapace or any other sort of cover for that matter.

Taking a deep breath and stretching its wings and back fin as far as possible and being rewarded with the sound of tendons and muscles straining after not having moved them for who knows how long, the creature began to look around itself as if it was wondering where it had crawled on land. Glowing pools of orange seemed to try and pierce through the foliage of the jungle ahead, while a rumble escaped the being. After scanning its environment for a short period of time, it picked up the shell it had come out from, which had shrunk back to its original size, alongside some of the sediment due to the size of its limb. After closing the hand around it for a moment, it opened its hand again and the shell had vanished from the palm, leaving only sand and pebbles, while the being let them fall to the ground again without any sort of care.

A flock of Raybats, small bat or bird-like beings, screeching in panic and flying high into the sky from the treeline caught the creature's attention, before it began walking into the jungle near the shore line straight into the direction the ruckus had come from. It could feel the presence of the other creatures nearby. It could feel their minds going into a state of panic as it drew closer. But there was something in this jungle that didn't belong there. A mind dominated by the desire to kill and devour. A twisted soul, burning in rage and hatred as it made the creatures further away scream in fear as they tried to flee only to go silent a moment later.

The cephalopod creature stomped further inside the jungle as the stench of death lingered in the air and attracted flying carrion eaters. Long ago, it had travelled these forests before. Things had been more tranquil back then. It had looked at the other cephalopods and all the other creatures, which seemed to be less afraid of its presence as long as it didn't attack. That was before it went into hibernation in a stream where the shell was carried to the sea through the currents over the course of years.

Slowly the creature made its way towards the cause of this ruckus. As it passed by the remains of a corpse of Tyrant it stopped to look at an even taller creature than itself. Standing on two legs with a height of 20 meters was a creature that one could call the bastard son of a dinosaur and a gorilla.

Thick scales covered its skin like a dinosaur. Its body was upright and looked simian, while being packed with lots of muscles. Two powerful arms, rippling with thick muscles and ending in two bloodstained sharp claws, twitched slightly as the creature looked at the smaller cephalopod. Its upper body glowed red from great heat from the inside out. The head was relatively small and round as its forehead and scalp were covered with a bone plate for protection. It lower jaws seemed to be cracked and broken several times, making it look even stranger than it already was. On its back grew several long horns, that made the creature look almost demonic, and a tail grew from the lower waist with more sharp spikes at the end like a maze whipped the ground as the two large creatures looked at one another. Its pair of eyes were like pools of a burning hellfire as they glared with hatred and rage at anything.

A stage 3 Goliath.

The Goliath roared at the eldritch being in a blind rage as sparks flew out its throat and its new started to glow bright red, clearly not taking a liking in the other creature's presence. The large cephalopod answered by giving a rumbling sound from it, much louder and causing the air to vibrate around it as it spread its wings. Its opponent however didn't care as it leapt on top of the smaller creature, bring them both to the ground as it slashed with its claws at the cephalopod. However, instead of hitting warm flesh only murky mud was struck by the claws as the creature had disappeared. In the next moment tendrils engulfed the Goliath's head as the cephalopod in question was standing behind it. Its arms grabbed those of its Opponent and a foot was planted on the back of the Goliath, which roared in anger and tried pulling itself free.

Breathing a torrent of fire it tried desperately to free itself and to jump away, but the flames did little to nothing than causing the eldritch to tighten its grip. Then with one pull and a rumbling roar, the eldritch tore both arms of the Goliath out of their sockets, crippling it severely. The goliath's spiked tail trashed around alongside its legs as the eldritch still held the head in its tentacles framing its mouth. The Goliath roared furiously as it began to feel the tendrils tighten around its head, causing the armor on its body to slowly crack open like an egg and the eldritch still pulled on the Goliath's head while keeping it on the ground with a foot. The monster felt the pain wash over its being as the skin of its neck began to tear and blood oozed out an open throat.

The eldritch was deaf for the pained roars as it tore its opponent's head from its shoulders, causing the body to drop on the ground. The body still spasmed a few times as the fire inside died down, leaving only a fresh mutilated and warm corpse of a once mighty predator on the ground. Meanwhile the victor chewed up its opponent's head as its jaws crunched through the thick bones to get to the brain.

For a moment, it simply stood there, doing nothing than chewing up its meal. But when in the distance a flock of bird like creatures took into the skies startled and panicked as a similiar roar tore through the air, the cephalopod knew that this had been just one of many such creatures. Rumbling to itself, it began walking towards the distant roar before it reached a clearing. For a moment it gazed up the two moons of shear before spreading its wings and taking flight towards where the other roar had come from.

The fight for Shear had just gotten a third party involved and another monster was about to face this eldritch's wrath.

* * *

_Hours later_

Cabot cursed under his breath as the Gorgon jumped up to the wall of rocks not far from the fuel station. The quick spider-like monster had already killed 2 of the four hunters and during the last mission 4 other members of his crew bit the dust themselves. With every hunter that fell, the chances of survival for the remaining hunters became slimmer and slimmer.

But their survival was only secondary. The main objective was the survial of the fueling Station and with it the ship and all ist passengers. One might think that the destruction of the station wouldn't be much of a big deal or that the ship could just get the fuel somewhere else as it just had to detach the long cable from it. Unfortunately, things were not that easy. First of all, by the time this ship would reach another of all the fueling stations on Shear, they'd be overrun already. Secondly, even if the ship was about to leave, before fueling up completely, it wouldn't be able to get the rest somewhere else on the planet and if they did launch into hyperspace, they wouldn't get far.

That's the problem when you live in the Far Arm of the galaxy. You just don't get anywhere without a really big tank of fuel and if it isn't full you don't even get to the closest colony. In the worst case you are just stuck in the middle of nowhere where not a single soul is to help you, while you starve to death or suffocate when the oxygen runs out. That's why it wasn't as comfortable as the core regions of the space occupied by mankind.

The third and final problem was that the fuel was quite explosive when ignited. Destroying the station would therefore create a chain reaction in the facility, igniting all the fuel both on the ground and inside the cable, which ended all the way inside the half filled tank of the evacuation ship. And usually blowing up a massive amount of explosive resulted in a much bigger explosion.

So no, the ship had to completely fuel up here and this fueling station had to remain intact for the sake of every single soul on that ship and those they had failed to safe.

It was still easier said than done though. The feisty Gorgon was a cunning creature, very agile and used ist environment perfectly against the hunters. The gorgon was perhaps the most grotesque creature among the 5 types of monsters that were discovered so far. Resembling a humanoid spider with assymmetically arranged yellow eyes, sharp fangs jutting out of its jaws and some hair in its otherwise bald head made it quite a horrifying sight to behold. The creature had four legs, each long and ending in sharp claws to hold itself onto walls and trees. Its abdomen was also very large like that of a wasp as White worms or maggot like creatures peeked through holes in it, while the gorgon itself sometimes pulled one out and ate it. It was still unknown what sort of relationship the monster had with these beings, but some thought that they might have been the undeveloped offspring of the Gorgon.

Something that made this creature even more terrifying was its intelligence. It perfectly outmanouevered the hunters, dodged guided missiles and bullets almost gracefully as it swung itself across the field with a thread used as a rope only to cross the distance between itself and their prey, catching already the maniac Hyde and the medic Val off guard leaving Cabot and Abe to fight.

"I'll be honest with you Cabot." Abe wheezed out as he had taken some serious damage from the monster as dried blood caked his left thigh. Both hunters stood back to back as they tried to find the Gorgon, which was roaring in the distance after a fast retreat. "Right now, I'm really beginning to regret taking up your offer to work with you." Cabot let out a dry chuckle at this.

"You say that now? Shouldn't you complain when all of this is over?" He said. Abe scoffed at this.

"Maybe then it will be all too late becuase I don't get to Punch you in the face for roping me into this. Besides, as long as I can complain about it, you know that I'm not dead yet." He said.

In that moment the monster jumped high into the air towards the hunters and the fuel depot behind them. What the Gorgon failed to notice where the harpoon traps on the ground that shot up and pinned the monster to the ground. Screeching in anger, the gorgon tried to attack the cables holding it to the ground, but in that moment the last two hunters in town fired all they had at the monster's head, being rewarded with more startled, angry and painful screams from the arachnid being.

The trashing of the monster however had destroyed the cables as it chose to ignore the hunters and send an mimic made out of acid towards the fuel depot.

"Don't let it through!" Cabot shouted as he opened fire upon the mimic, but it was not enough as the mimic reached the fuel pad and detonated itself. The machine had already taken critical damage and this was basically the cherry on top of the cream. The fuel pad burst into flames as explosions ran up all the way to the ship. It was as if someone had lit the fuse to a bomb and neither of the two hunters was able to contain their shock as they followed it travel upwards to the ship.

"...No." Abe muttered watching as the evactuation ship was shaking with explosions. The shock was written on his face as the feeling of despair spread in his guts, knowing fully well that he and the rest of the hunters had failed. In the next moment, he suddenly was impaled by a large claw of the Gorgon, which now that it was not attacked took the opportunity to take vengeance for the traps he had laid down for it. Throwing the corpse of Abe off ist forelimbs with a swing of its arms, it snarled and hissed, while Abe's dead body hit the Ground with a sound of bones breaking and flesh being torn apart.

"Abe!" Cabot shouted as he opened fire upon the monster. It didn't seem to care as it pounced at Cabot just as much he didn't care for his own safety anymore in that moment. But then a large shadow was cast over Cabot and the Gorgon as it tackled the spider to the side. "What?" Cabot said as he whipped his head to the side to see what happened. A large cephalopod like monster, looking slightly like a variant of a Kraken, had grabbed a hold on the Gorgon and tackled it into a wall of rocks. The spider monster roared in pain as the newcoming creature was crushing it between itself and the rock. Large cracks had formed a spiderweb in the rock upon the Impact, but the Gorgon was still alive and trashing around.

The Gorgon then spit out a stream of ist corrosive acid, causing the eldritch monster let go of it, but not without punching it into the wall. The spider like monster roared in pain and slashed with its claws at the other creature, but only to find its arm grabbed and twisted, until it snapped and fell off the body, causing blood to spurt out in fountains. This made the Gorgon fall screaming in agony to the ground.

Cabot watched in complete bewilderment as the two monsters fought one another. Above the ship shook in larger explosions than befpre causing the air to vibrate as a whole, drowning almost all sound in the thunder above. A voice at his earpiece caused him to snap out of it.

"Cabot! What happened? The ship is blowing up and we get more readings of monsters approaching your position." A voice belonging to the medic Caira shouted.

"Caira. There is another monster fighting the Gorgon." Cabot said as he couldn't take off his eyes from the Kraken-like eldritch attackingthe Gorgon on the Ground again and again with punches and kicks, making the insectoid being screech even more in pain.

"What?" Caira asked on the other end in bewilderment.

"I don't know what it is. It looks like a Kraken, but more humanoid." Cabot said. In that moment the caphalopod grabbed a hold onto the Gorgon's head with one Hand, while keeping it on the ground and tore it off alongside the spine.

"That doesn't matter we are going to come and pick you up before the horde arrives." Caira said as not a moment later the hunters' ship appeared not far from Cabot's location. In that moment, the eldritch released a roar, though not towards the ship but towards the general direction where Cabot was lying. At the same time, Cabot's vision spun and distorted. The ship with the hunters swung around wildly, before crashing into the ground below and exploding into burning scrap metal. Cabot didn't even react to it. He couldn't. He didn't even notice that a stage 2 Goliath had stomped on him, crushing him unter its foot.

More Monsters poured out of the undergrowth and drew closer to the eldritch creature as it stood there with its wings spread widely, ready to fight and kill every last one of the approaching horde made out of Goliaths, Krakens, Wraiths and even a few Behemoths.

* * *

_Timeskip_

At the edge of Shear's moon's orbit a fleet of 5 military ships appeared from hyperspace. Each vessel was packed to the teeth with weapons, personel and equipment that had been gathered to liberate the former colony from its hostile inhabitants. However, without any valid research on those monsters, they might as well charge into the thick jungles of that planet blindly and hope to not get eaten by something.

It had been 2 years since the worldwide evacutation of Shear. While millions were rescued, it was also millions that had lost their lives including the hunters under William Cabot and those that were left on the planet to die after the evacuation ships had left the planet. The government of Shear was truly at a loss there and had stepped down as their failure to achieve the evacuation had left them with their politicial Position being questioned by not only the colonists, but also the other colonies' governments.

The refugees were brought to the closest colonies which then would try and take care of the stranded and homeless people. Following the chaos, the governments tried to reason with the military to reclaim Shear immediately, but unfortunately due to the isolated location of the planet sending troops from one end of the galaxy to another was not only expensive, but also took a lot of time. Thus the proposition was immediately shut down by a majority of the politicians.

It had taken 2 years until they finally had gotten green light from the politicians and company CEOs to gather a fraction of their forces and send them into the Far Arm.

From the bridges of the capital ships, the crew watched as their vessel rounded the two celestial bodies neighboring the planet, before coming face to face with a lush green world. Through there were many ashen lines spreading like cracks across a glass marble, where the destruction of the monsters was still visible. Murmurs and whispers rang across the crew from all over the ship when seeing the planet.

It had been quite some time already, but the planet's post apocalyptic state from the orbit mirrored perfectly how the situation was for the refugees further away as well. Existences and lives had been destroyed. Many people had lost family and friends and all they ever had. For them to move on was still a problem in the bigger scheme, which most higher in the hierachy simply ignored or charged pyschologists to provide some comfort.

Silently the ships approached the planet, though among the soldiers there was panic coursing through their minds. Among Cabot's team were not only wildlife hunters, that took down even the most dangerous creatures known to man in the galaxy, but also mercenaries and ex-soldiers, known as urban legends across the galaxic community. So if even these people failed, what could a few hundred standard soldiers do?

It didn't matter what they could do to be honest. It wouldn't even matter if they simply all died on this mission. Most people simply ignored the events of Shear as another failure of mankind to expand further into the Far Arm instead of viewing it as the tragedy that it was for millions of people.

All these soldiers had to do was to set up a parameter and a base for further operations and as such secure the reclamation of the planet. With all those resources, no one would be able to keep their hands off the planet and as such it was essential that the operation would be carried out as fast as possible. That was also one of the reasons why this operation was mostly sponsored by the companies that lost a lot of money from this monster infestation as well as their never sleeping competition. With the planet being uninhabitated once again, it was technically like the celestial body had been just discovered, meaning whoever was fast enough could take whatever they wanted.

Once they were near the high atmosphere, the capital ships released smaller vessels from within to scout the area from the skies, while the capital vessels would run scans from the orbit. What the pilots of these smaller scout parties witnessed were large scale destructions in form of Deep crevices in the earth, burnt down Forests and ruins of the once functioning colony as nature had already begun to reclaim its territory.

Once the ships gave green light that no monsters had been found in a certain area where a base could have been established, the ships sent out several more vessels to transport the construction materials to their destination while one of the capital ships descended into the planet's atmosphere. The only complications occured when suddenly the pilots complained about headaches and disorientations when flying over a certain area.

As the ships shot over the sky and the trees shook in their wake a certain small cone-shaped snail shell laid hidden under fallen leaves in the undergrowth, before it began to move. From within a certain orange glowing eye peered outside with a rumbling sound as the wind carried the scent of new visitors of the planet.

* * *

OC Profile

Name: U'goth

Epithet: Old One, Eldritch, Monster that hunts other Monsters

Race: Cthuli

Gender: Sexless

Biography: U'goth had been a player, who had suddenly found themselves on Shear many centuries before the sudden appearance of monsters. They do no longer possess any memories of their life as a human being. Not what kind of occupation they had or their name or how old they were or if they had been male or female. It is unknown what caused this sort of amnesia, but it might be in relationship with their race as an eldritch being.

From what is known, U'goth had been by no means such a gargantuan eldritch before as they were during the monster outbreak. They had been reduced to their eel-like larval state through continous PKing by other players, not allowing them to achieve a high level or even an end of their race's evolution line. However, upon arriving in this world, they had lived without much difficulty, devouring the wildlife around them and growing stronger with the years passing, before eventually evolving into higher tier races of their kind. It is unknown for how long the Cthuli player has been staying on Shear, but given the term eldritch that their race belongs to it can be estimated to have been millennia.

However, one thing that has not changed througout their evolution was perhaps their affinity to water and preference to large bodies of water to live nearby as their initial larval state was more suited for an aquatic lifestyle. Despite being able to now stay indefinitely on land, the racial influence always draws U'goth towards oceans and other bodies of water. As a solution the mollusc player experimented in making items and created their shell after the model of other shelled mollusc such as snails and ammonites. Due to the Shell, that they use to live and hibernate in, being an item created through mechanics of YGGDRASIL, it changes its internal size to the size of the user, thus making it unnecessarry to make a new one with every evolution, while maintaining small exterior size.

* * *

**Wild alien planet, check. Giant alien monster with supernatural and possibly psychological powers, check. Lots of hostile environments, check. Great, now I'd only need a lot of experience in horror movies and I could turn this movie literally into a really bad rip off of the Alien or Predator Franchise or the original trilogy of Jurassic Park (I STILL HAVEN'T WATCHED THE NEW ONES YET). To be honest, I think this type of story would be well supported by this world, but unfortuantely horror isn't exactly my cup of tea.**

**Thank you for reading this rather short chapter of the Fallen World Chronicles. I hope you enjoyed it at least a little. I kow it's not much, but writing a fanfiction for a game that got released, then turned into free to play and eventually dropped by the studio that made it isn't that easy to be honest. Or at least not when combined with Overlord, which usually can be combined with almost any other franchise. **

**Also I did notice that among all the Overlord fanfictions there has barely been an eldritch OC at all. I mean, Im sure only few People actually spent time researching about Lovecraft and the many things that were made from his works like Cthulu, but shouldn't the rarity of those things be more of a motivation to make these things? Especially with races from Lovecraftian stories being Canon in the Overlord universe (Oververse?) like Chaugnar, Brain Eater and Shoggoth (Solution's race)? Okay, maybe I'm not the one to talk here as I can actually list a lot of races that are not used in such fanfictions at all (most of them being already unusual races for characters such as several kinds of demi-human races plus a few heteromorph ones).**

**But yeah, I saw Evolve as basically an untouched gold mine writers could use as not many did use it in the first place, but I guess I simply didn't have the skills and qualities for that.**

**It is a true shame that Evolve's development was stopped right after it became free to play. I really would have liked to play that game, but unfortunately its rather short story simply didn't play out, though there was apparently more to it planned given the Queen Gorgon campaign mission, suggesting that there would have been a much deeper storyline than just the battle for Shear.**

**I personally think it is a wasted opportunity as the game was already made and released and it is a shame that it only came out half finished. Well kinda like this short oneshot could have been way longer if I'd have extended it into fights on the different maps of the game against one monster at a time. But unfortunately, I couldn't picture that one out. Sorry guys (T-T)**

**If we just would have gotten our hands on a finished version we may even got a really nice game with a thought through plot, that might even have explained things like the monsters' origins and the rest of the Evolve universe. Oh well, at least it is still a nice unfinished universe that can be used for fanfics and other creative ideas. Others will most likely be able to pull that off, but unfortunately not myself.**

**Now then, have a nice day and I hope to see you next time.**


	7. Chapter VI: From the Ashes, new Flames

Chapter VI: From the Ashes cometh new Flames (Grimgar of Fantasy and Ashes)

* * *

The silence of the night seemed to suffocated all sound from the world as the full moon shone with crimson light down upon the world bathing the world into an omnious light. Not a single bird sung nor did any insect make a sound. The world was covered in a shroud of darkness and silence. In nights like these he came up the hill and looked down upon the Frontier City of Alterna before him. Looking down at the many lights that were still lit within the houses and at the outposts at the walls, he couldn't help but feel a wrenching feeling in his chest, before he took notice of something else.

When he made out the gleaming of the guards' swords, His finger nails dug deeper inside the bark of a tree as he almost tore a piece of it from its trunk. He hated them. Hated them so much he didn't just wanted them dead. He wanted them to suffer. He knew the bite of a sword cutting into his flesh. He knew what it meant to lose a limb and to bleed out to the point where consciouness slipped out of one's grasp. And he knew what it meant to be forced to retreat like a rat to live another day, to lick his wounds and return with another approach.

Yet this was the way he managed to come so far. Why he was still alive to begin with. If it hadn't been for cowardice instead of valor at the lowest point of his life, all would have been for naught. He would be dead and the carcass would have been devoured by worms long ago.

He gazed up at the moon. It was as if some demon was looking down upon him and the world, threatening to devour and destroy it whenever it felt like it.  
Yet he liked the moon of all celestial bodies the most. The night was his day. The moon his only companion. The stars his audience.

He left the hillside. There were other things he needed to take care off. And so he vanished back into the undergrowth.

* * *

_The world is a cruel yet beautyful place. That was something he had come to realize right after the time by His mother's side was over. It didn't matter whether He ran through halls of stone or the thick undergrowth. It didn't matter whether He was alone or dodging others just barely, who would shout at Him or even better chase after Him from His naive childish perspective. The beauty of the world was something He was aware of right from the start._

_It didn't matter whether His father or others tried to teach Him the ways of the sword or bow. He just went along with it, but He never paid it any more mind than necessary. Outside was the world in all its brimming colors and all its aspects. The light and slightly tickling feeling of a small butterfly on His palm was worth more than the heavy and cold sensation of a sword or knife anyway._

_If only times would always had been like this..._

* * *

Days have passed away since the last time he went out at night. This time, however, he didn't go to his hill. His goal was closer to the city, but not the city itself.

Following the dirt path, he passed many gravestones. All of them had been people that had come from this tower.

The tower. An enigma in itself. Without clear intervals, a group of people would appear in this world, Grimgar with nothing, but their clothes on their bodies and their names in mind. All of them never recalled anything before that. Not where they came from. Not their families and friends. Truly pityful people, stranded in some foreign place without even a sense of orientation. It was always like that. Well, almost always...

But he didn't care at all for them. Something had burrowed itself deep inside His mind and spread its roots through it like a tree as it had been festering like tumor in his brain. Something he couldn't forgive. Not even now as he was about to do something that would change everything. Normally when people were asked what they felt right before making a meaningful decision, most would say that they thought about turning away, about not doing it at all as doubts would worm themselves into their minds and never leave them alone until the deed was done as if encouraging them.

He, however, didn't think at all about this what if scenario. His eyes were cast on the tower up ahead alone. There was no turning back for him. There was only the road before him and his goal up ahead.

Before long he arrived at the bottom of the tower's stairs. Now he needed to be fast. Faster than he had been even back then or when it really did matter and he wasn't. It was now or never. No turning back. Because there was nothing to return to. Slowly but without a sound he scaled the stairs only to stop shortly before the end. He knew that there was something dangerous ahead, but there was nothing he could do about it anymore. His fingers grabbed firmly around the hilt of his weapon and a familiar yet foreign Sensation washed over his mind. Taking a last deep breath he calmed himself as he run up the last few steps without a sound.

Before him stood two guards. Both men clad in iron armor and armed with swords. And both looked incredibly pale when they saw him. Immediately they drew their swords and the next course of action was decided for both parties. With a battlecry they charged at him and in response he drew his weapon, its blade gleaming menacingly in the red light of the moon as it peaked through the clouds on the firmament. The first man swung his blade at him, but he dodged to the side. By doing so he slammed his foot against the guards knee and pulled him behind him where only the stairs were. Yelling out in shock and pain, the guard tumbled down like a sack of potatoes.

The other man had crossed the distance and attacked as well, but the sword was intercepted by his own weapon. The guard tried to pin him down as he leaned over to put his entire weight into the locked blades, but in the next moment he found himself overpowered and thrown backwards as he fell against the wall behind him with his back. He wasted no time to counterattack with such a wide open target. Before the guard could gather his thoughts, another blade slashed him across the neck. The blade bit right into the flesh and left a deep cut as a fountain of blood exploded a second later from the cut throat.

Gurgling and desperately trying to close the wound, the guard struggled to breath as it looked like he was clawing his own throat, before he collapsed on his knees. His eyes never left his dying opponent. If he was still having some fight in him, he would probably attempt to stab him into the back the moment he turned his gaze from him. And so he watched at the man died slowly and painfully until he eyes lost all life in them and he fell to the ground only slightly twitching.

Finally turning around, he noticed that the other man had not come back. That was bad. Immediately he rushed down the stairs to look out. But right then he came around the corner of the stairs and swung his blade at him. There was no time to block and evading to the side wasn't possible. So the only thing possible was to jump over the man and using his head as a spring. His foot came down the man's helmet and the moment he pushed himself further into the air he heard a loud thumping sound. Landing on the ground was easy, but turning around he saw the man struggling to get up after his face had been smashed into the stairs.

His helmet had been discarded, revealing the man's short hair as he turned around and looked in Horror at him. Whatever he was saying with his shaking voice, it was ignored by him as he kept approaching the man. Gritting his teeth the guard gripped his Sword tightly and charged at him. For a second he felt something like empathy for this man who desperately clung to life and attacked. Because of that perhaps he charged at him as well and swung his blade.

Blood flew through the air in this cold night as a headless body fell to the ground. And the night was silent once more, menacingly gazing down on the world below with its sole red shining eye.

* * *

_The flames had consumed everything. Every last place within their home was Burning and the smoke made it impossible to breathe. Those that didn't burn to death, suffocated pathetically. And for those that still were fighting out of desperation, fate only had a painful and gruesome death in store. The sounds of shouts, battlecries and metal hitting metal and flesh rang through the air as he and the others ran away._

_There was nothing they could have done anyway. So they were pushed through a hidden passage to escape as everyone else was mercilessly slaughtered. Tears streamed down the eyes of many as they fled into the Wilderness and only turned around to see the flames and smoke climbing high into the air from the place that they used to call home._

_The time after that was the darkest time ever. Aimlessly wandering around to find a new place to live, the group was moving through the untamed lands. Many died later from being killed by wild beasts or illnesses. When someone couldn't walk on their own anymore, they were left behind. Too much of a waste of rescources to keep something dying alive when its fate was already sealed._

_He had been young at that time and lost most he had ever known. Competition was numerous and strong. So in order to survive, they had to do anything necesarry. _

_It didn't matter if it betrayed their ideals of former lifestyle, they had to survive and if it was not for them, then at least for those they had lost._

_And so they stole food from others as no one would take pity in them. They pillaged dead bodies both for food and other things of value. They killed others either out of self defense or hunger. But even with all those things done, they were still growing fewer in numbers and theey barely had enough to survive the coming winter._

_Of once more than a dozens souls, only a handful remained when he was chosen to steal from a nearby camp. It was well guarded, but there would be enough food to get them over the winter. He was the smallest, but with that also the most agile one of the group. Therefore, he was chosen. So the others said at least, but it might as well be because he was the weakest and therefore the next one in the line of those to be disposed._

_But the hunger was driving them all to such ends. He understood that. So he ventured off into the dark night and into that lion's den. Avoiding the guards and using the shadows to be unseen he snuck deeper and deeper into the camp, but he could not have counted for the guards actually letting him in only to corner him in the end. Just as he reached the supplies, the guards tackled him to the ground and knocked him out._

_The next time he woke up, he was tied up and laying on the cold stone ground like a worm as before him sat the leader of the clan whose camp he had invaded. A battle hardened person, who held a gaze as cold as ice as he looked down upon the thief. He asked where the others of his group were, knowing fully well that the thief was not acting on his own, but he remained silent...at first. Then they cut off his arm with a rusty and old axe. The pain was too much for him as he cried and screamed out everything. The leader nodded and his guards knocked the one armed thief out._

_The next time he saw him was when he was tied to a pole and used as a target practice. His stump for an arm was poorly bandaged and arrows had already cut his Skin. He had to flee. Pulling and scrambling he tried, but it was no use until an unfortunate arrow hit the rope tying him down, freeing him. Immediately the leader shouted at his men to capture the running thief, who struggled to even breathe. An arrow hit him in the shoulder of the arm he had lost, but he didn't care._

_There was only running. The drive to stay alive was too great and so he ran and ran and ran. Deeper and deeper into the snowy forests until the hunters lost the footprints in an upcoming snowstorm. In a hole in the ground beneath a stump of a fallen tree, most likely dug up by wild boars before he had laid in wait for them to leave with ragged breath. And when they did, he ran for it again._

_Until the storm stopped and he had lost too much blood to stay conscious, he had run away from everything again, before finally collapsing. The cold had made his Body numb and the loss of blood gave him an headache. As the blood of his wounds had stained the snow around him crimson, he blacked out._

_The next time he woke up was not in the afterlife or the forest he had collapsed in. No, instead he was in a comfortable bed. Outside the snow was falling against a window and around him everything was made out of wood. It clearly was some hut in the forest, but he had still no idea where he was. That was when suddenly the door at the other end of the room opened._

* * *

He awoke during the afternoon in the forest. The day after the assault was not spent with resting or thinking that it was over for him. The last night was simply the tact that would announce his further advances. But until night fell there would be a lot of time left. Time that would be best with preparing. With no doubt there would be a ruckus as soon as they'd find the dead guards at the tower, but it would mean nothing. Nothing they would do would mean anything in the first place.  
Especially not to him.

He had to go. There was still a number of things that needed to be done first. There was no point in sitting around idly.

His body felt heavy... not. The last night had left without leaving a mark on his body. Normally his muscles used to be stiff and ache, but that was not the case right now. They only felt a bit slow from having awoken just now. To be honest it would perhaps be healthier to sleep a bit longer.

But his mind didn't allow him to. Too much unrest was spreading through his veins as he carried himself through the dense vegetation.

As he walked through the woods, stepped over stones and roots in his way and alongside the shore of a lonely lake, his mind still was somewhere completely else. Somewhere so indefinitely far away that no matter how much he would try, he'd never be able to return to. That place was the past. However, while he could not travel back in time, he could still return to the places he had been before.

And the place he needed to go was none other than the ruin where his life had perhaps been destined to end. The guards noticed him, but with his feet he scaled the walls and with his straightsword he simply felled them before an arrow left their bows' strings. Someone sounded the alarm and more and more of them poured outside to kill him, an intruder. Back then it would have been a slaughter. Dozens of them armed with daggers, swords, spears as well as bows and crossbows against him, a young thing without either training nor weapon.

It was a slaughter... however this time, they were the ones screaming and running for their lives. A single strike of the dark blade in his blade cut through metal, flesh and bone alike, allowing their blood to escape their bodies as they were cut into shreds. The sheer amount of blood began to make him only see red and yet he simply kept slashing. Again and again, he kept striking making more blood flow as it was liberated from their veins. The iron-like stench of blood engulfed everything.

Only the panicked screams of the defenders ordering a full retreat made his head snap into their direction as he slowly walked towards them. The squelching sound of the broken bodies and the blood-soaked mud beneath his feet didn't irritate him the slightest. Like a pig they would have cut him into pieces, left him to die and laughed at his miserable existence back then.

Now it was his turn to return the favor.

He was no longer the starved child they had almost killed for stealing Food. He was a warrior now with a simple thing driving him.

**Vengeance.**

Inside the ruins, the attacks continued. The defenders knew the tunnels and where to place traps and ambushes. None of them succeeded. Their weapons broke against his armor just like his blade broke them and cut them into bits. It was a bit like a game of hide and seek or tag, but unlike those games, being found by him meant a gruesome death befalling the loser.

Eventually he managed to enter a large room where the leader was with his axe. He roared in anger, demanding his guards to kill him instead of lifting the sword himself. They lasted about 2 seconds against him, before falling as headless corpses to the ground as he began walking towards the leader who now finally found the bravado to at least lift a sword, but his stance was terribly unbalanced. Not to Mention that he shook like a leaf in the wind. The eyes were wide open in fear. Sweat formed on his skin in large quantities and his breathing was uneven and heavy.

For a moment everything was silent. Neither of them moved.

Then the leader jumped at him... and sealed his fate.

A single strike cut off both hands of the leader, sending them and the sword they had grasped so desperately flying through the air before they fell a few meters away from him. The leader screamed in pain, Looking in shock at the stumps where the hands used to be and now only blood came oozing out. Another strike followed and a leg came off with a sickening sound of tendons snapping as he fell to the ground screaming. He pleaded to be spared and tried to drag himself away.

But he was deaf to his stammerings and pleads. Instead he began to claim his vengeance. By killing the leader very, VERY slowly.

He forgot his feeling of time. He forgot how many times he had induced pain into this creature. All he could do was to finish what he came for with a sadistic smile on his face.

By the end of it, the ruins had lost their master and he walked out, having nothing to do with this place anymore. Even if the survivors of this slaughter would hate and attack him for this, he could not care less about them as he would strike them down the moment they would decide to come to Him and attempt to take his life.

There was still something that needed to be done this night.

* * *

_The door opened and revealed a truly strange sight to behold. The one at the other side of the door was a goblin, but unlike the goblins he knew this one was clad in robes instead of armor and simple cloth. The first thing that came into his mind as he saw this attire was the word mage. Individuals capable of performing supernatural deeds to aid them in battle. But never before had he heard of a goblin being able to cast magic to begin with. A long ashen beard was on its lips and long hair flowed down its back._

_"Ah I see you are awake." The goblin said loud and clearly, startling him a little as the small, old, green man approached the bed he was laying in to take a closer look. Unable to move, he could only look into those golden eyes of the goblin as he leaned closer to him, his long nose almost poking him in the face. After muttering something under his beard and nodding to himself, the old goblin removed himself from his face and began to walk out of the door again._

_For a moment he was alone. Immediately, his instincts kicked in and told him to run for it. But he only managed to throw the blanket off his body as the door opened once more and the old goblin had returned with a wooden bowl with steaming contents within. A smell filled his nostrils and immediately he noticed how hungry he actually was. The volume his stomach growled was not helping to keep that to himself. The old goblin laughed as he approached the bed once again._

_"I found you collapsed in the forest. Almost died when I got you finally to the house." The old man said. In the next moment, he only felt how a hand grabbed his chin and something delicious poured into his mouth. The old goblin was pouring the bowl's contents into his mouth before he could even resist. The reflex to swallow kicked in and made it slide down his throat. A fuzzy warm feeling spread through his body afterwards. "You still have to recover though. You have been out for more than a day." The old goblin said, but he couldn't help and sit up straight._

_And then a sensation hit him that shouldn't have been there. Looking down his shoulder, he saw the arm that was supposed to be cut off. It was there. Everything was where it should be. Skin, muscles and bones as he curled his fingers a few times and felt the sensation of the skin brushing against each other. The old goblin chuckled._

_"Ah yes. I also took the freedom to heal you, young one. I must confess though I do not really see why someone would do such a thing as-UFF!" The old goblin was cut off when he embraced the old goblin suddenly. He couldn't help himself anymore. Tears spilled from his tightly shut eyes and sobs escaped his throat. A moment later the old goblin patted his head. "There there. Its going to be alright now."_

* * *

The sun began to reach its zenith as he arrived at his destination. He was a little bit surprised to be honest. Normally it would have taken hours to get back, but since he had gotten stronger he easily crossed the distance between the places. Much faster than even he would have thought possible.

Hidden under layers of foliage, far away from Alterna and hidden again by some sort of illusion was an old wooden hut. Made entirely out of logs of trees, which now were overgrown with generations of moss and liches was the only place He could actually call home. The hut of the old goblin that had saved his life. Opening the door with a loud creaking sound he walked inside.

In the main hall was a small table near the window with a view on the nearby lake and on the oppiste wall was a stove and other tools for cooking food. A corridors ahead lead into the study room of his savior where he would mostly be on some days. A turn to the right would lead into the bedroom. Here were two beds and a few shelves. The second bed was made for him after the old man decided to adopt him.

Time itself had basically not left its mark on the inside, except for layers of dust, which had accumulated on some of the surfaces.

Everything was just as it had been when he left. A feeling of nostalgia filled his mind and took him back to a time before all this.

But shaking those thoughts out of his head, he went to the study room of his savoir. It was a room packed with bookshelves and a desk. An old carpet was spread across the floor. The once most likely bright colors had faded into a strange tone of gray over time and layers of dust covered the surfaces. His master had a spent many hours inside here. Once he peeked inside and caught him praying to some sort of deity, he was unfamiliar with. For about an hour he had been there, praying to his maker as he had called him to return and guide him through this world. Of course, the young him had not spent an hour with standing in the door and watch his savior pray as he quickly left before he could have been noticed.

But he was not here to put his nose into the books of his master or to pray to that deity of his as he lifted the carpet from the ground and threw it to the side, revealing a hidden door in the ground. This was the door to the basement. When he was younger, the old goblin had forbidden him to go there alone when he had found the door by stumbling over the carpet, but now this time was over. He had been there before, but there was something that was still waiting down there. Something he needed to take with him.

Opening the door and climbing down the hidden staircase, he entered a room lit by stones in the walls, that emitted a soft orange light. It was as if someone had put torches there, but they emitted no heat or smell. Only light came from these clearly magic stones. No matter how He looked at them, it only manifested his idea that his savior was indeed a great mage, who was way more powerful than what He had seen thus far. After all, the lanterns in Alterna were not lit by such stones. If his savior had such things laying around and used them so casually, he must have been so great, right?

The corridor led to a crossway. The left would lead to a trap, while the middle one would bring one to a training room, where more traps were placed. Only the right path was safe to walk through as it lead to a massive door. It was more like a gate of a fortress, but smaller. It was made sturdy and heavy, capable to withstand even heavy blows. Why the old man had not put traps in this place was unknown to him, but perhaps he figured that if any Intruders were to enter, they would give up on that door and try another or give up.

Well not that one would actually try to blow the door up as that would only trigger more traps set by the old man a lifetime ago. Fortunately He knew how to open the door and proceeded inside, where a podest was and chains hanging from the walls. What had been there had already been removed by Him. But there was something left in this place. While this podest was on one end of the room, on the other was a large altar like structure with a large retangular shaped sarcophagus in the middle. On its lid was the a skeleton carved into the stone like material.

He had no idea whether it was a saint or something else of importance, but it didn't matter. Putting both Hands on the lid he began to push. He once had tried in the past, but back then he had not been strong enough to even move it at all. Now however he simply shoved the lid off, which crashed to the ground below with a thundering Sound. This kicked some dust up into the air, making him unable to see what was inside for a moment. But then the dust settled and he came face to face with the last thing his savior had left behind in this world.

It was a suit of armor made out of mostly red plates, though it looked foreign in its design in comparison to the silver coloured plate armor the people he had fought used on a regular base. This one looked more like one that the samurai used in battle than the western style knight armors. Still he could feel that it was a powerful gift.

Looking down, he gazed at a far more deadly weapon than the old straightsword that he had used for so long. It was a sword unlike any he had ever seen. It was very Long and its black blade seemed to gleam in the weak light of the basement. He picked the weapon up, looked at it and swung it a few times. A nodachi was what this sword was. While he didn't know that, he immediately took a liking into this sword.

He could feel the power of this gear. It was a feeling he had almost forgotten. A feeling of suddenly receiving such power that it was like a rush of adrenaline through his Body. Something he had not felt ever since he had been a young goblin. Taking the dark blue sheath out of the coffin, he sheathed the blade, before he took off the tattered cloak and the few scavenged pieces of armor he wore, he put the armor on. at last the sword was strapped onto his back as he now truly felt like a warrior.

Powerful. Without fear. Proud. And Maybe a bit wise. The ideal that he had of a warrior.

Then he left the Basement and the hut. The sun was starting to set. And he had to test this new gear.

* * *

_Years passed by as the young goblin grew up under the guidance of the older one. He became taller than most other goblins, though not to the level of a hobgoblin. He was taught how to wield a sword and how to survive alone in the wilderness. By that time, he easily could cut a tree in half with nothing, but a chop of his hand. And eventually he was taught how to cast magic, that he had never had even dreamed about, and was told stories of the world from the old one's youth, that sounded even more fantastic than the magic he taught the younger one. _

_Sometimes the old man would sound rather sad and melancholy when talking about a place, that once had been his home, but couldn't return to anymore as it was far too far away from Grimgar. But then he'd smile again and talk about his life here and how he met his fledgling._

_The two of them had a pretty good time, despite there completely different origins._

_But time was an unforgiving companion. _

_The old goblin became weaker and weaker over the course of the years. Later, he had to walk with a cane and eventually he was incapable of moving without help. Despite that, he was always happy and smiled all the time. It honestly broke the young one he had saved._

_Then he laid on his deathbed and called the younger goblin to him to talk to him a last time. They looked back at the years that had come and gone every since the old goblin had saved him. At good and bad times. It had been a colourful life the two had spent with one another. Perhaps it was because of that, he could only remember it with tears streaming from his eyes, staining the sheets of the old man's deathbed and rendering his vision blurry._

_"I have kept one last secret from you, that I wish to share with you. I didn't tell you, because I didn't know whether you were ready for this or not, but now I see that you had been all along. Good grief, I'm such a donkey." The old man said weakly. "Down in the basement is a bottle laid in chains and paper seals. Drink it and you will become stronger than anyone will be. Originally, I had thought to use it myself, but my time is over and it would be a waste. You on the other hand still have your life before you. And I entrust you this power and all I was given by my masters as I deem you are worthy of such gifts. It is better to be handed down like that instead of some scum to use it. Now go and live your life as you want it to be."_

_With that the old goblin closed his eyes, smiling until the end._

_The young goblin broke down at this point. His legs unable to support him made him fall on his knees. His hands tightened around the sheets and a scream of pain and loss tore through his throat, unable to contain any of his Feelings. For what felt like an eternity he was there, crying his eyes out at the loss of the only family he had in those years._

_After hours, his voice failed to scream and sob anymore. His tears had stopped running as it seemed like there was no more water in his eyes. His fingers had loosened around the bed sheets and his body did no longer shake anymore. He felt numb in that moment. Unable to feel anything right then and there. It was as if his soul ceased to exist and all the grief had killed what had remained of his emotions._

_Without another word, he pulled the sheets over his foster father's face, covering him as a gesture to honour him._

_He then went into the basement. He knew the traps and the way how to avoid them like the back of his Hand. And in that room he found it. A single podest with almost vase-like bottle. Several strange paper tags were attached to it and chains had been placed onto it, preventing anyone to lift it or to move it at all. There was no key to unlock them and no way to just unwrap them as they were fully stretched out, preventing it to be lifted even just a little. So he had to cut through them. Again and again he hit them with his blade until they finally gave way. One after another, the chains broke until all of them were gone._

_He had been a bit exhausted after that. And a drink was surely welcomed after that. __At first it was like he was drinking this wine that his foster father had once given him, sake he had called it. Then however it changed. No, that was not correct. The taste was the same actually, but his entire being was suddenly assaulted by a whole lot of other sensations that the taste on his tongue. His body felt like burning up and tearing itself apart. He wanted to scream, but only choked noises escaped his throat as his body spasmed uncontrollably and all air was knocked out of him._

_His body became larger, taller than an adult human man in the frontier city even. The skin changed color from a lime green to an intensive red. Arms and legs became packed with muscles. Two horns sprouted from his forehead. His face became more human like while the canines in his mouth became more prominent. His bald head was covered with long white hair. And on the forehead, a third eye had grown as it opened and looked around wildly, spasming like the rest of his body._

_By the end of this transformation, he stood there for a moment, unable to even lift a finger. It was as if he had become a statue. Then his larger lungs sucked in their first breath of air and his body began to feel once more. Flexing his arms and standing up straight he felt like he was made out of rock. Tall, proud and strong. His blade that he had discarded after hacking through the chains was now much smaller for him, yet he took it as if it was a dagger and saw in the reflexion those cat like eyes looking back at him._

_It was this moment that he understood it. This new body was his master's parting gift. A gift meant to make sure that he could life his live the way he wanted to. That he could do whatever he wanted to. This was something he would cherish forever and make sure that he would use it wisely._

_And his first act as such was to leave the Basement, take his old teacher's corpse and bury it underneath the tree on the hill that he had always taken him to gaze down at Alterna without being seen by the people. His more powerful body easily carried the corpse wrapped in the bedsheets to the tree. The powerful arms tore through the soil and dug beneath the tree's roots in no time, simply shoving aside any obstacle. Carefully, he laid his foster father's body to rest there. He gave the body a last look and a single tear run down from his new eye on the forehead. Then he filled the hole with the earth he had dug up and watered the grave so that the tree that he and his old man loved so much would not take any permanent damage._

_At last, the newborn oni vanished back into the undergrowth._

* * *

Night had fallen over the frontier town of Alterna. Lanterns were lit and People had returned home to their families and friends or were drinking in a bar. The town was more or less quiet. The moon was concealed by the Clouds and an even darker night descended upon the world.

It was then when he stroke.

One might expect that the oni would charge at the guards like a boar or jump out of the undergrowth and tackle both men to the ground and crush them. But he had patience. He was no mindless beast. And he had time.

The plates of his armor shifted against one another as he stepped calmly out of the forest and turned to the guards, who had dropped their subject they had been talking about. He didn't care. He didn't listen at all. No. His attention was only on them as his hand grabbed the sword from his waist and unsheated the long blade. It was as if a the world was setting a stage for what was about to unfold when in the same moment the blade was drawn an omnious wind kicked up, carrying leaves and dust behind him towards the city. It was a completely natural wind, not something induced by magic or himself.

However it was as if the world itself just gave him a message without any words. And since that could be interpreted with his motives in the first place, he may as well follow that lead as his feet kicked off the ground and he rushed towards the guards with great speed.

"Mons-AH!" One of the guards wanted to shout. Despite the samurai like armor, the third eye, the sharp fangs in the mouth and the horns were without a mistake an undeniable evidence of the oni's inhuman nature. Still the shout morphed into a panicked scream when the black blade was swung their way when they got into range. With ease the weapon left by the old goblin bit into their armorclad bodies and sliced them clean in half. Their lifeless upper bodies fell down as the clouds parted and in the crimson light the oni looked at his now bloodstained blade.

It almost looked hypnotic in its new bloody glory. Finally after who knows how long in that empty tomb the old man had created it finally was used for ist intended purpose. If weapons had a mind on their own, the oni was sure that this sword would shout in joy. However, the shouting of more guards broke him out of the thoughts as the sound of fast approaching footsteps and the vibrations of the ground preceeded their arrival.

He couldn't help but smirk as he walked through the gate and came face to face with a multitude of warriors who had their weapons ready to attack.

**PLING**

An arrow then hit his armored neck and fell to the ground. Looking up the wall, the oni spotted archers who looked shocked at their failure as his smirk became even wider. He was going to enjoy this. That much was clear.

"ATTACK!" Someone shouted and the guards rushed at the oni with a chorus of battlecries, weapons ready to slash at him and fell him like they had killed countless monsters like goblins and kobolds before.

If he had been still that starved goblin from back then in this situation, he'd have run away. Now he was more than that. No more the useless and weak crybaby, but something greater that this world has never seen before. He was no longer the young goblin, who's home was burnt down by the human hunters and soldiers. From the ashes he had crawled out from. The old man saw in him something akin to an ember and nurtured it until he became a healthy and strong flame. And now he was a wildfire that would burn down everything in his path.

And so he swung his blade once more and fell every soldier who came to close with one strike, while the remaining ones charged over the dead bodies of their comrades to him. Arrows hit his armor, but none of them managed to pierce it. One hit his hand, but it too failed to penetrate his skin, being reduced to a feeling of something poking him.

Blades hit his armored chest and shoulders only to break or recoil in shock as none of them even damaged the armor. The soldiers were completely unable to understand what happened, before in the next moment they shared the fate of their fallen friends as they fell in pieces to the ground and painted the cobblestone floor crimson. Alarms were raised and shouting resonated through the air as more and more warriors, archers and mages came to the scene with weapons and staffs ready.

To be honest, the oni found the human reinforcement mostly...young? Most of them looked more like children except for a few adults. Truly the age of an enemy had never been a thing that had stopped him from delivering the killing blow, but this was a bit much, wasn't it?

That were his thoughts when suddenly some large young man with tan skin, white hair and heavy armor swung his greatsword at his unprotected torso. The force of the attack hit him, but it honestly didn't do any damage at all. Instead, the oni snapped out of his bewilderment about his new enemies' young age and looked down straight into the new challenger's red eyes.

In the next moment his hand grabbed the attacker's head, lifted him up into the air and then slowly applied more force on his grip. The warrior trashed around and muffled screams could be heard as the oni felt something wet staining his fingers. Blood began to ooze out the young man's body where the oni's sharp nails dug into his skin as well as the eyes, the nose, the mouth and the ears as he kept applying more pressure. Beneath his fingers the monster felt bones shift and break, how teeth popped out the gums, eyeballs were crushed in their sockets and the hot breath of the warrior hit his palm.

**CRACK SPLOSH**

Ah, he got carried away by all that so much, that he literally had crushed the man's head in his hand like a grapefruit. Blood had sprayed from the now ruined head and the spine was no longer connected to the skull, causing the headless body to fall from the oni's grasp onto the ground below. In that moment it was as if the warriors before him were truly frozen in shock as all of them refused to move.

He didn't. Throwing the bloody crushed skull away and taking a step forward, he made sure that the people knew what was going to happen next. The fight was not over yet.

While some fled in panic, others attacked now together with the archers. Once more blades and arrows hit his body, but nothing did any damage at all. Then he decided to let them taste despair as he slashed his own blade once at the incoming weapons, cutting their straightswords and greatswords in half, leaving only useless handles in the soldier's hands. Before they knew what hit them, the oni simply picked one of them up and threw them with his whole strength at the archers on the wall. The sound of pained screams and breaking bones was enough to tell him that he had hit something at least. And so he picked up the defenseless warriors and threw them one after another at the archers or randomly into walls.

When hitting a person, there were screams of pain mixed into the sound of bones breaking. When they hit a wall and the wall remained intact, there was a sound of blood being splattered across the stones and the smell of fresh blood hit his nose. When the wall caved in, there was the usual rumbling sound of something collapsing. Not that it mattered for him. He could see perfectly in the dark after years of training under his old man's guidance.

And so the oni proceeded further into the frontier city, when suddenly something new happened.

A spell hit him right away... and it failed to do anything. The hard training under the goblin mage had made him pretty much immune to weak spells. And boy, the definition of weak spells to the old man was basically applying to any spell he had seen to be casted by a human mage! So when he turned to the young girl with lavender hair and a witch hat, that had thrown this spell at him, he was upon her faster than the others could see and hit her with the back of his hand, launching the young woman into a wall, breaking it in the process and leaving the attacker unable to fight anymore.

He only snorted once before he quickly grabbed some young boy with short brown hair by his arm. He had dashed towards him with a dagger in his hand and almost the oni would have missed him. Now however, this boy with tired brown eyes struggled to get out of his grasp. It was another small fry. That much was clear as the oni simply tore the boy's arm off, before bisecting his body with the sword.

"You bastard!" A roar of rage rang through the night when a red haired boy thrusted his sword into the oni's thigh. The blade shattered just a second later. The boy's fierce expression became one of shock and panic as the oni glared down on him. "H-Hi I'm R-Ranta-" The boy said with all the bravado from a second ago having vanished, but in the span of milliseconds the oni's arm crashed down on his head, making it explode like water melon.

One would imagine there being some sort of anger, excitement and bloodlust to rage within the oni's mind. But in all honesty, he felt almost sad for the humans. Almost, but not even close enough to actually stop. His hatred sat too deep for him to just leave things unfinished like this. The people of this city still had to pay a heavy price for all the things they have done over the years. And he'd make sure that they would pay until he thought that it had been enough.

That night, the Frontier City of Alterna was invaded and destroyed by a single monster.

* * *

**Timeskip**

Many days passed since that fateful night. The Kingdom had heard Nothing of the City of Alterna in weeks and worry began to worm itself into the hearts of the people. Not to mention that merchants had avoided going there ever since some of them had disappeared there alongside travelers and never returned. This had already occured several times by now, making it a no man's land that no one dared to venture to.

That was until a special unit of knights was dispatched to see what was going on in Alterna. From the mountains they rode towards the city. They had no intel about what was going on down in the city. They would be the scouts to uncover this mystery. If one had no Prior experience with such situations, one might think of it as an exciting adventure. But those that actually had been on such missions before know that it was not going to be a glorious trip as they might imagined it to be.

The scouts didn't ride all the way to the city. Of course not, when the rumors existed that merchants simply vanished when they rode into the Frontier City's general direction. getting off their mounts and tying them to a tree, they would have to approach from the undergrowth. Sneaking through the forest wasn't exactly that easy. Despite the first impressions the forest would leave on you, there were plenty of dangerous animals in there to endanger ones health and life. Goblins, pit rats and other creatures could attack one out of the blue and vanish in the same moment back into the foliage. For reasons like that scouting wasn't exactly a very liked profession among soldiers.

The group slowly crept forward until they reached the outer wall and saw the remains of a battle. The gate had been destroyed. Large holes and broken places spread across the wall. The skeletons of dead guardsman was left on the ground and was all that was left of them. The bodies were either cut in two or mangled with arms, legs and neck broken and twisted. Immediately a pit formed in the guts of the scouts as they cautiously proceeded to advance further into the city.

Alterna had been known to welcome outsiders with open arms as a city at the border they had to trade with others. The only thing the scouts were greeted with was silence and death. Not a single soul could be heard or seen. It was calm. Far too calm for the liking of the scouts. Remains of a battle could be seen. Holes in the walls of buildings, skeletal remains of several guards piled on top of one another and broken swords and arrows on the ground.

Something one of the more experienced scouts saw immediately was that the swords had been cut clean off. It was not broken, but cut. The question was however what on earth was sharp enough to simply cut through a steel sword like that.

The group proceeded to go deeper into the city. Here where no corpses anymore. Instead were were just other traces of a fight. Otherwise the city was abandoned. In every single house and all every street, there was no one except for a few wild animals that had apparently taken a liking to this new environment. A raven startled one of the scouts as it had flown out of an otherwise empty building and flew deeper into the settlement.

It appeared to be a ghost town and the scouts were about to leave. That was until they reached a large open area where they almost froze completely. It was a hill of corpses. A hill made out of the corpses of those that had been killed. Weapons ranging from swords and axes to spears and even shields had been impaled into the rotting bodies as crows and other carrion eaters like pit rats were tearing the last scraps of meat from the bleached bones.

The hill seemed to have an intimidating and strangely almost majestic presence to it as if it was a throne for some sort of monarch to look down upon the scouts with both authority and monstrous elegance.

(Meanwhile in another universe a certain Overlord of the dead and his archdevil advisor sneezed.)

Some of the weaker scouts couldn't help, but vomit at this sight. Others simply stood there frozen in shock in an inner conflict with themselves to either accept reality or to deny it with all their willpower. The more experienced ones were unaffected by this. They immediately knew the importance of this situation and a feeling of danger crept up their backs at this. If whatever force that had massacred this city was still there, they'd need to leave immediately.

Then suddenly a new sound penetrated the air. Something was thrown out of an alley. The scouts quickly identified it as one of the Badges of the Red Moon Volunteer Army. The strange men and women who appeared with no Memory other than their Name in strange clothes were no secret in the Kingdom. In fact, they were rather well known, which was also one of the reasons why Merchants came to the City to swindle their way into the hearts of naiive and uneducated Souls.

But why was this Badge thrown like that? What did throw it? It couldn't have been a pit rat or anything like that, so it must have been something bigger. Drawing their weapons, the scouts watched as something they had never seen before came out of the alley.

It looked almost like a goblin, but its skin was in a strange bluish gray tone and a single black horn grew on its forehead. It had no large nose or pointy ears either. The small humanoid creature had only a loincloth covering it as its hands grabbed the badge on the ground. For the scouts it was completely weird to see something like a goblin playing around with something like a cat would with a yarnball.

Still this creature was not human and its goblin-like appearance was already enough reason to be cautious. One of the scouts feet took a step backwards as the sound of it grinding against the pavement made the being look towards them. Immediately, its body language changed into attention and maybe even fear as it made a growling Sound, though it sounding more like an angry kitten if anything, but it did take a step backwards.

In that moment an arrow was released by one of the scouts. The creature saw that and immediately leapt to the side, before running away with a screeching scream.

"Dammit I missed." The scout with the bow said.

"What now?" Another one asked.

"I'd like to leave this place as soon as possible. But I don't want that thing to get away." The commanding leader said, before pointing at two of the scouts. "You two go back to the horses and wait for us. Me and the other two get after that thing. We might be able to capture that thing. Those researchers back home will have a field day when we bring them something new to dissect. Move out! And keep an eye open for any undead." He said as the group split up.

It was strange indeed. All these people had been killed and not properly buried, yet the curse of the No-Life King had somehow not turned them into undead. Or perhaps they had been killed once and were disposed off later? But by who and when? Those questions run through the leader's mind as he and the other two scouts chased after the small creature. For a while it seemed like they were not able to find it, until it happened to unintentionally ran out of an alley right in front of them.

Screeching and hissing as it ran on all fours, the horned humanoid being tried to shake the scouts off within the maze of alleys, only to end in a dead end.

"Finally." The scouts said as one of them had a rope ready to tied the creature down.

"You think we get more than a silver coin for that thing?" The other said while the leader himself approached the being. Something was surprising him though. Though bearing its sharp nails and teeth at him on one hand, it also held the badge tightly to its chest as if it was assuming that they wanted to take it away. Well technically they were going to as they needed only it and not that badge. Given that Alterna had fallen to whatever force, it was just a worthless piece of metal after all now that its former owner probably couldn't be identified anymore and was most likely part of that pile.

**CRACK SPLATTER**

In the next moment, the sounds of bones breaking and was blood splashing across the floor could be heard behind the commander. Turning around he saw a large shadow with three eyes and two horns towering over him while the other two scouts were reduced to a pile of gore. Where had this thing come fron? What was it to begin with? Why was it here? In its hand it held a black blade, longer than any Sword the commander had ever seen as fresh blood dripped from it.

In this panic he forgot the goblin-like creature as it sneaked past him and behind the 3-eyed being. It then held out its palm towards the scout commander. In the next moment, a large fireball shot from it and exploded against the man, reducing him to nothing but ashes.

With a sigh, the oni looked down upon the younger oni. It had gotten into trouble. Killing the other two scouts with magic without a sound had been easy. Following them unnoticed, however, would have been more difficult if the scouts had been any faster.

The smaller oni then climbed up his shoulder almost like a monkey as it had the badge of the Red Moon Volunteer Army in its mouth. The oni took the badge out of the mouth, though with some resistance of the younger one, before putting it away.

"That belongs to your mother. She'd be made if you chew too much on it." He told the smaller oni, who lowered its gaze. With that he walked out of Alterna with the younger oni on his shoulder. He had to bring this child back to its mother and probably keep the badge away from it or the other oni children.

Once he had been lost in the ashes of his ruined existence. Then a kind soul fed the flames and made them grow. It had become a wildfire and burnt down many things. And now it too had given birth to new embers. Embers that would grow into healthy and strong flames themselves with the same kindness he had received once.

* * *

Name: Unknown

Epithet: Goblin Mage, Old Man (by nameless Oni)

Race: Goblin

Gender: Male

Biography: A mid-level custom NPC created in YGGDRASIL. The once younger goblin had been summoned from the dungeon of his origin into the world of Grimgar, to the same tower as the usually humans that get transported to that world. Unlike them however, a resistance to mind altering spells and skills prevented him to lose his memories. Back then he was immediately attacked by the tower's guards upon them opening the doors, which he quickly struck down without mercy. Unfortunately the ruckus from his attacks had attracted more fighters from Alterna and thus he was forced into hiding, despite his far greater powers. And so he left Alterna.

Over the years he traveled Grimgar far and wide, fought men and beasts alike, before coming back to Alterna after many years and settling down not far from the frontier city deep in the woods and hidden from the humans. What exactly drove him to explore or to return is unknown. Perhaps it was the hope to find others of his dungeon. Maybe it was the certain connection between him and this place. Nobody could tell for sure.

He had built himself a quiet life out there. He never had any problems with getting food or clean water nor did he need to visit any settlements or merchants for new clothes or raw materials as his magic could provide him with that. Basically he was living as a hermit. A lonely goblin hermit in the middle of the woods.

That was until one day in his later years, he came across an injured and dying goblin child of this world, laying face down in the snow. Taking pity in the young soul, he healed them and gave them a place to call home. He trained them with the sword and taught them the ways of magic. In the end, he treated this child as if it was his own as he himself never had any, despite being basically an old pervert himself.

But with the years passing by and more than a century in Grimgar, he knew that his time in the world of the Living was coming to an end. It was nothing he had actually concerned himself before as he had been living alone. Still, he feared that this child he had taken a liking into would become like him a hermit filled with nothing but regrets about all the chances missed and passed by. Also this child he had raised was the only one he would entrust the secrets and powers of himself and his creators upon. He deemed the other beings of this world, including the people from the tower unworthy of the power as they were lesser beings. He knew that if he passed away and the child would leave, this place would sooner or later be found and its secrets and knowledge be abused for probably twisted purposes.

Not exactly jumping for joy at these thoughts, the old goblin told the young one of the race changing item he had stored away in the basement of his home. It had been there for many years as he knew that if anyone, he couldn't trust, was to drink it, they would do far more damage to the world as a whole than most could fathom.

And with a simple request to his foster son, that he should live his life the way he saw fit, he passed away with a smile on his face. Hopefully, he was now at a better place. Maybe even reunited with his maker.

* * *

**Thanks for reading this chapter. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did making this scenario.**

**And as such ends the tale of the old goblin's fledgling. Some of you may now say "Wait a Minute. This is no individual of YGGDRASIL. So what's this piece of literature doing here as a chapter?" Well, I did say that individuals of YGGDRASIL would be involved in these scenarios. And so it was the case here as well. If it had not been for this old goblin coming to Grimgar, he would never have been able to safe the young one from Grimgar. He wouldn't have been trained and taught by the old YGGDRASIL goblin and never would he even have turned into an oni to begin with, which led to him destroying Alterna and alongside it many lives.**

**So yeah, technically it is the old man's fault here. though the humans did their part by burning down young Junior's home and killing off his family and comrades over the years to come as well as attacking him on sight. But this story is a bit different from the others as in this particular instance it was not ultimately an NPC or player who brought forth destruction in their wake, but rather an item which granted someone from that world the power to dominate all in their way.**

**This is actually rather interesting as we are in the canon of Overlord aware of players, NPCs and dungeons appearing in the New World as the world still has no name on its own. But if items from a game like that were to land in such a world it would literally cause a wave of events. Legendary weapons like Excalibur are a thing in our own world and thus it doesn't take a big leap to think of it from this sort of perspective. If anyone would aquire the power of a divine class item for example lots of people would be finding themselves abusing this power for selfish reason. **

**Once powerless people could become invincible in that regard and rise to power, fame and wealth. Having seen the movie The Legend of the Sword just a month ago or so, this actually a very realistic scenario, especially if the weapon isn't bound by any requirements like a certain job class unlike the sword of the Dark Hero does, who probably was a Cursed Knight like Shalltear, which is now in possession of the leader of Blue Rose.**

**Also there is also another aspect of mythology and legends that was put in this story, which is the transformation of a being from one race to another.  
It isn't like transforming oneself into an animal like Zeus did a couple of times or disguising one as such by any means. ****Race changing items are a thing in Overlord. For example, Ainz used one on himself to become an Elder Lich for unknown reasons. Another way would be a vampire turning one of their victims into another of their kin like how Shalltear created a lower vampire from a person before her fight with Brain (seriously though, who in their right minds names their child Brain?). ****Legends where people are transformed into monsters are probably as old as mankind itself. Such monsters for example are Lamia, Arachne, wendigos, vampires and werewolves as they all were humans at some point, but were turned into these beings under certain circumstances.  
So what speaks against a race changing item without an owner finding ist way into another world and falling into the hands of someone who is unfortunate to use it? You're right: absolutely nothing. And this is not even considering the effects this actually has. Sure, you stop being what you are for example a human being and instead become something else, but in the cases of naturally weaker species like humans to also receive a boost in their abilities. Running faster, jumping higher, better smell and hearing etc. The advantages outweight the disadvantages in this scenario.  
**

**Of course, what these people do might be a result of the new racial influence that the change has on the previous mindset. For example, turning into a vampire requires one to drink blood and thus murder becomes a nessessity to survive for that individual. Other races probably also have certain mental changes that might turn them into something completely different from what they used to be. I'm not talking about abusing this new power to get what you want or to claim revenge against someone that wronged them, but actually put their previous life and mindset to the grave and start a life as a being that would later only be known from legends and myths.  
Not to mention, that if these individuals somehow got to reproduce ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°), they'd basically introduce a whole new species to the world, that didn't evolve on that planet over the course of millions of years of evolution.  
On the long run, it could actually shake the foundations of entire ecosystems with the arrival of a new apex predator or overthrow the entire balance of the world with the appearance of another sentient race ( ͡° ͜ʖ ( ͡° ͜ʖ ( ͡° ͜ʖ ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) ͜ʖ ͡°)ʖ ͡°)ʖ ͡°).**

**So yeah, here are a few questions you may ask yourselves after this chapter.**

**Q: Didn't you say you'd be quite busy so you'd be unable to update any stories?**

**A: That is correct, but I also had the last two chapters of this story half finished for quite some time and just had to flesh things out a bit more.**

**Q: Why a goblin OC?**

**A: Because no one is using demi-human races at all. Its either heteromorphs or humans, so I'm doing something different for once. Plus goblins are a factor in this world and thus using their kind for this might not be such a bad idea, don't you think?**

**Q: Why is this goblin so OP?**

**A: It's not the goblin or oni that is actually OP, but rather the world of Grimgar being really weak. To be honest if we would take that cockroach guy from Nazarick, he alone would still be more than capable to easily kill not only the entire cast of this Show, but also probably this world's No-Life King. However, that would not explain it alone. After being tugged under the old man's wing, that young goblin became equally strong to a monster from YGGDRASIL. While he does not have those passive skills or anything like that, his strength and defense and speed have increased to the point where most attacks in that world simply don't do any damage anymore.**

**Q: What's with the ending?**

**A: The oni was originally a goblin, who lost his entire family thanks to the actions of humans. A suitable vengeance therefore would be to have them 'help out' in the creation of new ones to compensate for the damage they have done. Unfortuantely, since he's no goblin anymore, all his children will end up as oni or half oni. So what we have seen is the transformation from someone young and childish through hardship to what he is today. Basically he used to be an ember, a remnant of a bigger fire, that almost went out in the ashes, where he was found by the old goblin NPC. He was raised into adulthood like a flame and became an oni, before claiming vengeance. And like all open fires, he created new embers in his wake and thus the fire would spread. Actually a fitting analogy to the title of the show. Well at least more fitting than what I saw from the anime.**

**Q: Who is that young oni's mother, given that the father question is rather obviously answered?**

**A: (shrugs) I don't know. It's not that important now, is it? Maybe its Mary. Maybe its Yume. Maybe its Shihoru. Or maybe someone entirely else from the main cast. Who cares?**

**Q (for all you perverts out there): Why is there no "juicy" scene in this ending?**

**A: Because I can't write that. Seriously, I know how people write these sort of scenarios. I admit I have read my fair share of smut and lemon fanfics myself and therefore I probably could base it on those. But ask yourselves this 'Do you actually want me to write how a large inhumane monster raped and impregnated several human women?' Yeah, I don't think so. Also that would be a first for me as well so I better keep this for another time.**

**Q: Do you dislike Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash?**

**A: No. It is safe to say that the opposite is quite the case. Grimgar has a nice combination of different genres. It is different from the usual isekai stories in a good way (unlike Do You Love Your Mother and Her Two-Hit Multi-Target Attacks? (*shudders in disgust*) Yup, definately much better than that one). The aspect of everyone having amnesia is interesting and makes everything more mysterious, but to keep the NPC's usual devotion for their creators, I just made them unable to be brainwashed so I could legally bypass that fact.**

**Q: Does this story have anything to do with the Re:Goblin Project?**

**A: No. It's just another story I wrote with a goblin as the main character and it will have nothing to do with the upcoming Goblin Slayer/Re:Monster story.**

**So if you got anymore questions or suggestions, put them into the reviews or send my a private message.**

**I see you next time.**


	8. Chapter VII: New Powers Emerging

**Please note here, that this oneshot will take place after the end of the anime and completely ignore the canon events afterwards, mainly due to the fact that I couldn't find a translation of the novel online extending further than the prologue of the first volume and the manga was also not available over the 2nd chapter despite more than 3 volumes being out already.**

* * *

Chapter VII: New Powers Emerging (Master of Ragnarök and Blesser of Einherjar)

* * *

Throughout human history, the legends and myths of gods, heroes and monsters fascinated people. Some were religious in nature, telling the story of how everything came to be and how everything in the world around humanity operated as the work of gods, spirits or demons, despite being unable to actually grasp the natural phenomenon before them. Others were stories to tell the people about virtues and sins to manifest certain values in a societey while others were about what was actually important in life and guide people on the right path. Some legends even became the foundation of fairytales and other modern fantasy literature.

But something that never changed was that mankind was apparently very good in telling stories, no matter how far they were from the truth or how fantastic they were.

However, every tale had a little bit of truth in it. Both in its good aspects as well as in its darker, more unpleasant ones.

* * *

If anyone would have told Yuto Suoh 3 years ago, that he'd be thrown back into the bronze age and end up leading a clan of people and get to be with his childhood friend Mitsuki, he'd probably have called this person more than insane. He'd probably have called the closest ambulance to tell them that someone had broken out their sanatorium and was now harrassing people on the streets.

And yet here he was. He had become the patriarch of the Wolf Clan on Yggdrasil, an unknown location somewhere in the northern hemisphere, where people fought still with sword and spear for land and where the metal iron itself was still something very valueable and rare that it was onl rarely used at all.

How did it come to this you may ask?

Well, one night about 2 years ago, he wanted to test out an urban legend involving the rundown Tsukimiya Shrine near his hometown. And so he snuck away with his childhood friend in the middle of the night to that shrine. The legend said that if the mirror in the shrine was put before another mirror at full moon night, one would be transported into another world. So the best thing he came up with to test this tale was to try and make a selfie with his smartphone.

Whether it was only meant as a joke or if he was just trying to scare his childhood friend Mitsuki Shimoya was probably only known to himself. However, he had most certainly not considered being transported into another world as an actual Option. So much to his own surprise, he found himself called by a mysterious voice before he was summoned by a beautiful blonde young woman, Felicia. And after that, Yuto found a sword pointed at his throat.

At first, Yuto understood absolutely nothing about his situation and the fact, that there was a language barrier as well didn't make things easier at all. However, he was taken in by the late patriarch of the Wolf Clan, who also happened to be the father of Felicia, and from that point seen as a member of their family.

Life wasn't always easy. The technological gap between Yuto's own time period and this one being a major factor in this as things of the modern daily life were not even invented yet. And for a boy his age he was not very strong when compared to those of the Wolf Tribe, having grown up without in a world where it was not anymore necessary for men to fight in armies with sword and shield against one another. However, what made this especially difficult, were the many warring clans fighting over the continent Yggdrasil for more power. The Wolf Clan was not that a major player at that time and considered weak and pathetic by all that surrounded them, hardly even worth to conquer them.

And yet, mainly due to the fact that Yuto did have a smartphone, that could also be charged with solar panels, and actually network and internet when close to the mirror, he began to revolutionate the Wolf Clan with ideas from Earth's history such as how to be more efficient in agriculture and smithery. This also included strategies from famous conquerors of human history such as Alexander the Great of Oda Nobunaga. With this the Wolf Clan rose to power and wealth thanks to the knowledge Yuto could draw from the modern day world and began to accumulate more territory as the clan was now capable of competing with the others.

Once Yuto was even one forcefully sent back to his world, which in fact had been his goal for a long time as no matter how long he had already stayed in Yggdrasil, he longed to see his friend Mitsuki again, who kept in contact with him over the mirror, calling her despite the differences of time between the different time periods as she had taken the mirror from the shrine back home.

But in the end he decided to return to the bronze age again and live his life at the other side of the mirror with his new family as the patriarch of the Wolf Clan. This included Mitsuki, who took up the courage to confess to him and become his girlfriend as well as to come along with him despite him at first not agreeing with her, worrying for her greatly.

And so they returned to the other world.

Everything seemed like the newfound peace would last forever. But like all things, nothing was meant to last forever. Not even the happiest times.

* * *

The sun was slowly rising to its zenith as Yuto was walking through the corridors of his home, the palace of the Wolf Clan's patriarch in Iarnvoir. It was rather plane made of stone and had only a minimal amount of decorations, but that was fine by Yuto. He'd rather not live too luxurious as it would seem arrogant in his eyes.

The boy wasn't one to boast with his accomplishments, but he was proud of himself. Thanks to him and his smartphone, he managed to accomplish a lot of things. The harvests had increased a lot due to the introduction of the plough. The city as clean and not a dirty place like the medieval cities of western europe where people threw their wastes on the street, increasing the risk of epidemics like the black death Breaking out. He had introduced the concept of schools for all children to make sure that not only nobles and merchants could do things such as reading, writing and solving mathematic problems. And merchants bought and selled the decorative glass objects for high Prices he had asked Ingrid, the head blacksmith to make.

He had done a lot for the Wolf Clan and there were still some Things that he wanted to change. For example, he wanted to forbid slavery.

Slavery was in this time a very common Thing. Without slaves, most nations probably would never have accomplished such great monuments such as the colloseum in Rome or the temples of Ancient Greece. For the people of Yggdrasil it was completely normal and though no one would want such a fate to befall themselves, there was no sight of an end of slavery. As someone who grew up in the 21st century, slavery was much of a shock for both Yuto and Mitsuki and was something neither of them could find themselves able to agree with.

Still, Yuto was well Aware that he couldn't change that from one Moment to another. The concept of slavery was deeply rooted in the history of Yggdrasil and its people. Whenever a nation fell, the people had three options.  
First, they could simply bend their knee and hail the victor as their new ruler, meaning that they would have to endure whatever this new leader had in store for them.  
The second options was to oppose the victor and keep on fighting, though that would only result in a suicidal attempt to be brave as a single person couldn't possibly stand against an army under normal circumstances.  
The third option was to leave their homes and try to live in another clan's territory, however as refuges they were most likely to be seen as outcasts and eventually taken as slaves. This could also be when the victor of two clans decided to enslave the people of the defeated clan and even pose a reason why a clan invaded another one.

Slaves and their role were not to be ignored in a nation. While being technically without any rights on their own and not being free citizens, slaves were used for most works ranging from work on the fields to constructing buildings and other types of work. They were a rescource, that a nation in this time needed whenever there was a shortage of labour.

Shaking his head at this thought, he spotted a young girl with short light brown hair with a small pony tail at the left side of her head. Dressed in a brown tunic and a white toga like cloth, her blue eyes locked with Yuto's amethyst coloured ones, before she smiled and skipped over to him.

"Good morning master." She said bowing to Yuto.

"Good morning to you to Epheria. Is everything alright in school?" The patriarch asked, which she girl replied nodding with a bright smile. "Now then, you better get going. Don't want to be late, now do you?"

"Ah yes. Goodbye Yuto-sama." Epiheria said before skipping through the corridors to the exit. Yuto couldn't help but smile.

Epheria was a slave he had bought alongside her mother to allow them to work on the Palace and make sure they would not be mistreated, When he had seen them on the streets, he couldn't help himself but do so as Epheria bore a large resemblance to Mitsuki. The girl was shy at first, but managed to open up to both Yuto and her classmates with a little help from his side.

With that he resumed walking to his destination, his office. Apparently paperwork was a universal enemy of all rulers throughout time and until he had become the patriarch he would have laughed at the people who said that. However with him inventing paper, replacing the less practical clay tablets, and rising to his current Position, he also had a lot of work to do in that field. The people didn't govern themselves after all.

Finally he arrived and opened the doors to a rather small room where the papers were already neatly stacked on top of one another as if waiting for Yuto to arrive and make this day much more exhausting that it would have to be.

Well, here we go again." Yuto sighed as he closed the door behind him.

* * *

_For the next few hours_

The last paper was put aside on the table on the stake of those that were already worked through as Yuto sighed and slumbed against the back of his chair.

"Finally done…" He breathed out. "I really need another vacation from this." He thought loud until his mind travelled back to his last 'vacation' if one would call it when mutiple women were attempting to get into his pants and seduce him in a hot spring. Slapping both of his cheeks at this, he snapped out of it as the majority of his blood rushed into his face and a certain other place down below. "Nope. I don't need a vacation." He said.

In that moment he heard a soft knocking at the door.

"Yuto-san? Are you in there?" A soft voice said. Immediately, Yuto's expression changed to a warm smile.

"Yes. Please come in." He said as the door opened and Mitsuki Shimoya was entering the room. Her usual fress from Earth was replaced with robes befitting her status as Yuto's girlfriend and wife, while still being rather plain. The girl smiled warmly as he stood up and rounded his table to pull her into a hug, feeling him nuzzle his face in her hair. Ever since they became officially a couple, the two of them had Little awkwardness towards one another when expressing their mutual love for one another. Well Mitsuki would still blush crimson red when he'd take her Hand and there was quite a lot of competition for her as basically every woman around Yuto had feelings for him, but Mitsuki was not going to back off without a fight.

After a moment, the two lovers separated as Mitsuki held Yuto's hands, feeling the rough texture of his palms on her delicate finger.

"You didn't overwork yourself again, did you?" Mitsuki asked. Yuto laughed at this. It had been on some occasion that Yuto would lost the track of time and simply stay until the late afternoon working only to fall even asleep on his desk. Especially with everything going on since the official announcement of Mitsuki being Yuto's lover the amount of papers on his desk seemed to have multiplied for the first few days.

"Don't worry. I'm fine." Yuto said. "Did you manage to familiarize yourself with Iarnvoir?" He ask.

"Yes, I think I won't get lost in it anymore." She laughed awkwardly. "The people are very friendly and the city is clean. So far I've only seen friendly and happy people. You have done a great job leading them Yuto." Mitsuki said with a smile, that already made Yuto's day better.

"That's good hear." Yuto said. Mitsuki's smile faltered a little and became sad as she looked down.

"It's quite unbelievable, isn't it?" Mitsuki said, earning a confused look from her boyfriend. "Not so long ago, we were just two normal highschoolers climbing up that mountain to look for that silly Mirror and now we are here, leading a clan of People in another world. Crazy, isn't it?" She said.

"Do you regret coming here?" Yuto asked. Mitsuki walked over to him and pulled him into a kiss.

"I could never regret it coming after you, because I love you." She said after separating from his lips and leaning her head against his chest as Yuto wrapped his arms around her. "It just sounds almost unreal that there is so much going on out there."

"Don't worry. You don't have to go out to the Battlefield." Yuto said as the Wolf Clan was still in war with the Panther Clan, lead by Felicia's brother Loptr, who had fled after having killed his and Felicia's father when he chose Yuto over him as the next Patriarch of the Wolf Clan. Actually he had tried to kill Yuto, but his father had thrown himself between Loptr and Yuto, taking the deadly sword strike himself, before dying shortly afterwards. Fighting him was despite them being sworn enemies not easy for various reasons, but the biggest one was that Loptr had been like a big brother to Yuto before that as he had also helped him to get accustomed to the world of Yggdrasil.

"But what if something happens to you?" Mitsuki asked.

"Don't worry. I'll always return to you." Yuto said, kissing the crown of her head. The two separated ones more when suddenly something fell off the table.

"Oh?" Yuto said as he heard the sound of paper falling to the ground. Looking around the table he at first didn't see what it was. "I better put it back before I forget about it." He said. Mitsuki sighed.

"You are sometimes quite messy, you know?" She said in a joking manner.

But then the atmosphere suddenly changed as she saw Yuto's eyes suddenly widen in shock and harden as he stood up with something in his hand.

"Yuto?" Mitsuki said surprised as she found her boyfriend look at something small wrapped in paper in his hand. It wasn't a single sheet that had fallen off his desk.

An envelope. An actual envelope of a letter just like it would be in the modern day world. Immediately, the alarm in Yuto's head went on at this sight.

In this time and place, messengers were usually sent with letters personally and only few could afford such a thing. Also messages were normally writing on scrolls or on clay tables. And this parchment was snow White like the one you could buy in a store, which was so far still impossible for this place. The paper they produced in ths area was still slightly yellow due to the lack of industrilized machines to make it completely white.

And yet this was like normal paper from the modern day period. An object that shouldn't have been there in the first place. The letter's very existence was more than just alarming.

"Yuto?" Mitsuki asked as hertone adopted a worried tone. Her boyfriend's eyes were fixed on the letter in his hand. He turned to her and she knew immediately that something was very, very wrong.

"Mitsuki, call the others here." Yuto said. Mitsuki nodded and quickly took off, leaving Yuto in his room as a shiver crawled up his back.

* * *

_Later_

It had become late in the evening when Yuto had assembled his inner circle. In the meeting room of the Wolf Clan was a very Long table that usually was designed to house all advisors and influential people within the Wolf Clan. Now it was only occupied by Yuto, Mitsuki and their friends. Felicia, Sigrun, Christina and Albertina were looking at their sworn older brother/sworn father with concern.

"Thank you for coming so quickly." Yuto said with a smile, though it was clear that it wasn't a real one. "The reason why I called you here is this." He said holding up the envelope.

"An envelope?" Christina asked, completely ignoring the fact that in comparison to the yellow tinted paper people saw every day this one was as white as a cloud.

"What's inside?" Sigrun asked.

"That's what I don't know. However the fact that this is not made by ourselves and it clearly is something from our time is quite unnerving." Yuto said as he opened the letter and pulled out folded sheet of paper. It was about the same size as an A4 sheet when Yuto unfolded it. Once more the boy gasped as he found himself looking at something that wasn't native in Yggdrasil either.

Japanese kanji. The entire letter was written in perfect japanese. Now Yuto knew something was very wrong here. Still he coughed in his hand and began reading the contents out loud. Basically the contents could be summarized in 3 sentences.

We are a new force on Yggdrasil and hereby formally introduce ourselves as the Great Empire of Ur.

We invite you and your peers to visit a town we have prepared to discuss our future relationship.

We hope for your immediate response once you receive this letter.

While none of that was bad, the way it was written down was insulting as it boasted with greatness that "was unknown to primitive men living in clay huts" and that they should "dress appropriately befitting the occassion that was their summoning". Yuto was actually grabbing the paper firmly in his hands as he couldn't believe someone actually sending this to them. It wasn't like this was a text message from some bully, though it did sound quite like one.

"These people are mocking us. No matter who they are, they must possess quite an ego to write such things down and send it to us." Felicia said with a frown as the other occupants in the room nodded. It was true that the word mockery was basically written all over the message no matter from which angle looked at it.

"Still..." Yuto said looking at the letter. "It's still an invitation. Leaving it unanswered wouldn't do us any good." The boy couldn't help but break out in cold sweat. He had a very bad feeling about this. Such parchement shouldn't exist on Earth yet nor should anyone be able to write it in perfect japanese. Now he did not know how exactly the Japanese language evolved over the course of millennia, but he was very sure that it should not be like this. This was very concerning. Basically 2 options existed in his mind.

First, there was the less likely case that the ones, that sent the letter were actually predecessors of what later would form Japan. They may have been on the northern hemisphere as much as they knew, but given that the sea was to the west of them he would exclude the idea of being close to his old home.

Secondly, the more likely yet even more disturbing case was, that somehow someone else from his time period somehow managed to get access to the Tsukimiya Shrine, used the mirror inside and just like him was accidentally summoned into this world. It was very well possible and if this had occured even more often than just the time he himself and this other person landed here in Yggdrasil, it could be the reason why Nothing about this urban legend was ever uncovered. After all, him returning back to the modern day time had been rather a coincidence.

But how did it come then that there had been no such influence in this time? If this summoning had been occuring over some time by now, there should have been some sort of Impact on the people of this world at least, right? Yet, within the last 2 years Yuto saw no such thing.

"What shall we do then, Father?" Sigrun asked as her words tore Yuto out of his mind, while he tried to figure out what to do.

"That's the question." Yuto mumbled to himself. He kept pondering for a while, before he stood up from his desk. "A response is in need indeed. I will try to come up with something, but I'll need some time to think about a suitable response." Yuto said putting the letter aside for a moment. Mitsuki looked quite worried at the black haired teen at this.

"I'll bring this to the Attention of the others tomorrow. Felicia, please send a message to Linnea. Ask if she also received such a letter." Yuto said.

"As you wish." Felicia said.

"Then Albertina and I shall look around for information about this so called empire." Christina said.

"Huh?! Why sis?" The airhead of the twins replied, making the violet-haired Christina sigh at the almost spectacular unawareness of her green-haired sister.

"Thank you." Yuto said. "For now let's stay on high alert. If something happens.

With that the people left the meeting room and headed back to their own quarters. Mitsuki and Yuto also headed to their bedroom for the night, but with such a heavy tension looming over them it was rather difficult to sleep.

"Yuto?" Mitsuki asked as she looked at her boyfriend who sat in their bed and kept gazing into the air as if he was trying to drill a hole into the empty space before him. Of course Mitsuki was also very worried. After all something had just appeared that wasn't even supposed to exist in this time and space yet. She had been ready for many things when she agreed to come along with him. The lack of electricity, warm running water and many things that were part of the daily life for example. Yuto had told her after their arrival that he didn't want her to follow him into battle, because he was worried for her safety and Mitsuki knew that she herself was perhaps too soft to see the horrors of an actual battlefield where people fought and died left and right. She could only wonder how it must have been for Yuto to see this for the first time.

But this time it was different. Something had happened that neither of them could have ever expected and it was taking a toll on both of them for sure. The night was silent as only the light of the moon flooded into the room through the window. It made the situation almost poetic, but at the same time it was also making it more depressing. Seeing her husband awake at this hour and clearly struggling to fall asleep from all the turmoil going on inside his head was not something any good wife would be happy to see in the first place. She sat up as well and hugged Yuto from behind, making the boy slightly gasp as he snapped out of his trance like state as Mitsuki's slender arms snaked around his shoulders.

"It'll be fine, Yuto. You're not alone anymore." She said quietly while leaning her head against his. She felt Yuto's fingers brush softly against her arms as if he was trying to trace something along their smooth surface.

"Yes. You're right." Yuto said with a smile as he turned to Mitsuki, only to find her already asleep against him. Silently laughing he set her back down on the bed and laid down next to her, while his hand was never letting go of her own. With a smile Yuto Suoh fell asleep at last.

* * *

_Meanwhile_

A trio of men was gathered around a campfire as they looked into the flames. They were merchants on their way to the Wolf Clan's territory. Ever since the Wolf Clan had begun crafting very beautiful and decorative glass objects, which were even unknown to the empire that reigned over Yggdrasil supreme, they had begun to purchase These objects and sell them to higher prices somewhere else. It was basically the simpliest and most efficient method in economy. Purchasing goods from a relatively cheap source and seeling them to a higher price elsewhere to achieve a constant income that in the end would give them more money.

The decorative glasses were not too high in their price so they could purchase a few of them, but not too many. Thus it wasn't possible to monopolize the market with these things nor did anyone else figure out how they were made yet.

But that was not of the merchants' concerns. As long as money flowed into their pockets they were alright. And if those glasses wouldn't uphold their profit anymore, they could simply try selling something else. While the clans themselves mostly produced what they needed themselves, trade of goods between one another would never really cease to exist as some clans couldn't produce what others could in masses. As such their own profession would probably never really be endangered as long as there were no conflicts between the clans that would hinder such trades.

The three men were laying down on their own blankets as they rested in a forest. Of course they didn't dare to use their wares nor would they sleep right on top of the forest floor. Unlike military invading forces, they had no tents with them, but the trees around them would compensate for that in the case of rain and wind. Their horses were not tied to their carriages anymore as they were tied up on trees to prevent them from running away. Truly the worst that could happen to a merchant was to lose their products and that could happen in a large variety of ways.

Bandits could try to steal from them. Their horses could run away and leave their owners and products wherever they were right now. Even if fragile merhandise simply broke on the way from one town to another due to the lack of actual roads and the bumping of the carriage, it could mean the end of their carreer. Because of that merchants usually were very careful about resting.

However, these three had not concerned themselves with such things and not bothered to hire bodyguards to defend them as the Wolf Patriarch Yuto was perhaps very young, but he had a very smart and creative head on his shoulders. Among many things he had introduced to Yggdrasil such as a new way to make flour and bread to feed his people, the young patriarch had also a strict rule over his territory and punished bandits and the like for their crimes without exception. Because of that there had not been a single attack on the merchants in the Wolf Clan's territory ever since, despite its big increase in size and People, following the subjugation of other neighbouring clans.

It was basically the safest place one could be.

That was they thought when one of the merchants awoke in the middle of the night.

It had not been the wind that woke him up or the insufferable snoring of his apprentice. No, the thing that made him wake at such an hour after perhaps only a very few hours of sleep was the ground. While having no problem to lay on the blanket thrown over the forest ground, which was only covered in small plants and soil where he laid, there was something else about it.

*TREMBLE*

The ground basically vibrated under what seemed to be...footsteps?

The man was no fool. As he had been a child he had decided to become a merchant instead of a farmer or soldier. He had seen many Things during his travels, had been to many places all across Yggdrasil and also made the experience of miscalculations leading to rather negative consequences. He had a beautiful wife far away, which thanks to his work lived a good life and their son was just as sharp as his father was. He would one day make a good merchant once he went out of his childish phase of playing soldier with his friends. His wife had also given birth to a young daughter when he had been away just a few months ago.

However, never before had he ever felt footsteps that made the ground shake like that in his entire life.

Sitting up the man looked around him into the darkness of the forest. The fire had burnt down, leaving only a pile of charred black coal, which still glowed softly in a bright orange and pale ashes. The other two men slept soundly as the snoring of his apprentice confirmed.

It was hard to see anything when suddenly the wind carried away the clouds from a full moon high above the forest and lit the forest for the merchant. What he saw made all color leave his face and blew the last remains of tiredness away. At the tree where the horses had been tied on was no only a bunch of severed ropes, while the carriage was standing there unchanged.

Immediately the man was alarmed. Without the horses, moving the carriage was basically impossible. Leaving their goods would leave them only with the money they had at hand and most likely someone would just take away their stuff when they would try to get to the closest settlement to get new horses. If they even had horses to begin with that was.

"You got to be kidding me!" He shouted as he ran up to the tree where the horses had been just a few Hours ago. The ropes were still there, but no horses. The ropes had been severed as their loose ends were now uselessly dangling from the tree, however they didn't look like they were cut. There was no clean cutting edge like it would be the case if someone had used a knife or so. Instead the ropes looked like they had been torn apart with brute strength. But what exactly could jut rip a rope in two like that if even livestock like cows was usually tied up with them? "AGH! WHERE ARE THEY?!" The man shouted enraged.

The whole noise he had made, because of the loss of his horses then woke up his two companions.

"What's with all that noise?" One of them asked, while the other yawned still dog tired.

"Our horses are gone!" The merchant shouted. That woke everyone up.

"Oi… You can't be serious right now... right?" The other man asked in fright as he began to shiver all across his body, looking with wide open eyes at the man, who held up the severed ropes in his Hand.

"Do I look like I'm joking?" He snarled enraged. "Our horses are gone and from what we know we won't be able to get to the next city with our stuff before the next sunset. That is if we get this thing even moved in the first place!" The merchant said as he threw the ropes down to the ground in anger.

"Be quiet… and just don't move…" The second companion of the merchant said as his eyes were two focused on the merchant in fear. The merchant himself was confused. Did he really become so scary when he threw a fit? Sure he actually had made his wife and son cry back then once, but he didn't think that he actually would be able to scare the living daylights out of two grown up men. He was about to say something until he heard something behind him.

"Hrrrrr…" A low growling sound could be heard behind the merchant.

Immeditaly all hairs on his body stood up as he got goosebumbs. Something was behind him, wasn't it? What he had failed to grasp was that his companions had noticed it the whole time as he was too focused about the loss of their horses. What did his companion say? He was unable to remember as his body was flooded with adernaline. No matter how hard he tried to recall the advise his companion gave him was, his fear simply overtook his mind and led to irrational behavior. As such he couldn't help but breathe unevenly and loudly as he felt it again. The trembling of the ground under heavy footsteps. Now they were so close to him and so intensive that he was almost thrown of his feet.

"Hrrrr…" Something loomed over him. He could feel its presence. He could see the shadow rising behind him and engulfing his body in its darkness. He could feel the stinking breath on his head. Inside his mind, the merchant prayed to whatever deity just came into his mind. Prayed that he would be able to get back home and see his Family again. To kiss his wife and told her how much he loved her. To embrace his son and tell him about the places he had been this time. To gently touch his daughter that he almost never got to see due to his job.

He never had been one for praying as it was money that dictated his life over any deity. In that moment however, he turned away from that concept in which money had no value at all and prayed wholeheartly to the gods to spare his life...

*SPLAT*

His prayers were left unanswered.

*SPLAT*

And so were those of his companions.

*SPLAT*

Apparently, the gods didn't answer any prayers anymore.

* * *

_On the next day_

"And this is what they say." Following Yuto's explanation after the emergency meeting, the room exploded in an uproar of shouts. People began yelling at not only into the room to express their anger over the audacity the authors of the letter had to send such an insulting document to their patriarch, but also at one another as each comment one man gave was answered with many others from the people around them.

In his chair, Yuto sighed as he wanted to at least wait until the discussion had cooled down a Little. He knew it wouldn't be easy to break this to the others, but the scene before him reminded him more of a shouting match in kindergarten between pre-school children rather than an actual political discussion between grown up man with years of experience with such situations.

Some wanted to send a reply in form of arrows and swords as the invitation in the letter was also accompanied with a description how to get to their own base from Iarnvoir. After all, if they were to accept they'd also need to somehow get there without getting lost. Other men wanted to downright decline the invitation and simply keep things as they were with a bit more focus on this new force. After all, they had seemingly just appeared out of nowhere. To say that it was unexpected at least would be the Understatement of the day. Especially when never before anything had been heard about these people.

It was not uncommon in Yggdrasil that clans conquered territories and made it their own. A politicial map of each territory was about as stable as a chair with 4 legs with 4 different lengths. Within a year you could burn it and draw a new one because some clans were simply swallowed by others or the borders had at least changed. Normally however the clans kept an eye out for such people. To simply come and conquer territory had many consequences from economical ones from the tales of merchants to the sudden appearance of refugees from regions were fights occured between warring armies.

One way or another the information of a new player on the field preceeded them long before. This new faction was therefore extremely different and had to be approached with a lot of caution. To act recklessly with them could have dire consequences for everyone involved, including the citizens of the clans.

And then there was a relatively very small group of people that actually considered accepting the invitation. While one might think that it was just out of good will and politeness, a more underlining motive for this was of course curiousity and cunning. A new clan didn't just pop out of the ground over night like a mushroom. Yet this one did and that was more than enough reason to make anyone curious and wary of them under the aspect of having no information about these people at all.

Something that was a truth both in the bronze age and the modern day was that Information was a resource and a very powerful one. The proverb "Knowledge is power." was no exaragation at all. Knowing your opponent could win fights and wars, while blindly storming at them without any sort of plan and preparation could be in some cases equal to committing suicide. That was something most of the people had learned with Yuto as their patriarch. Who knows? Perhaps they could get a chance to actually get deeper intel about this new empire when talking to its citizen. That would be a great deal of help in future discussions and negotiation.

But while the people had become smarter, most of them were blinded by the glory of their past triumphs or were too prideful to not brush off the mocking way this letter was delivered that called the proud Wolf Clan and its people "powerful and great only by chance and from the perspective of an ant".

For 5 whole minutes the room kept being in a ruckus with no end in sight until Yuto finally had enough. Standing up, he swung his fist down on the table before him.

"BE SILENT ALREADY!" He shouted into the room making the grown up man look at their patriarch raising his voice. "We achieve nothing when we keep being divided like this, quarreling among ourselves and doing nothing. What we need is a course of action and how we answer to this document. This situation is… unique at least I admit. But if we want to face this force, we'll have to stop facing one another and come up with an actual plan." Yuto said as if he actually was a father, scowlding his children. The men grumbled and settled down again. The tension was still dense in the air, but at very least the useless fights betweent he participants had stopped.

*BAM*

Suddenly the door was swung wide open by a man dressed in armor. One of the guards of the palace as he looked with wide open eyes around the room before spotting Yuto on his chair at the other end of the table. The sudden noise made everyone look shocked or surprised at the man.

"Father!" A man shouted, running into the room. Everyone immediately looked at the terrified face of the man before them as he sweat bullets as he rounded the others and kneeled at the patriarch's feet, who jumped from his chair.

"What is it? What happened?" The young patriarch of the Wolf Clan said as the man stopped taking a few breaths.

"From the plains westwards... there is a monster heading towards the city!" The guard panted heavily as droplets of sweat fell from his face and his body trembled, creating an irritating sound of metal plates shifting against one another despite the fact of kneeling on the ground.

"What?"

"A monster?"

"What is he saying?"

"Absurd! What kind of joke is this?"

The men talked about one another as murmurs broke out between them, making it harder to understand the guard.

"Silence everyone!" Yuto commanded, making everyone quit their chatter. "Raise your head." He said as the guard did as he was told. Immediately, Yuto saw that this man was not joking around. While the sweating and panting could be from running around, the trembling of his limbs and his eyes, which reflected pure terror, were not something that could be just dismissed. "What did you see?" Yuto asked. Deep down he prayed that it wasn't something bad, although his rational mind told him that this was exactly the case.

"It was horrible! It bore large horns and sharp teeth. It looked like a snaked, but it bore the claws of a hawk and the wings of a bat! I came as fast as I could." The man almost yelled as the horror was present in his eyes.

Yuto and Mitsuki didn't take long to put 1 and 1 together to know what this man was talking about. There was one sort of mythical creature that spread throughout the entire world in almost every region of the planet in some form or way. Tales of large reptilian creatures that were either a sign of destruction and evil or prosperity and good. Dragons were the probably most popular legendary beings that the world knew. Now that Yuto thought about it, throughout the entire time in Yggdrasil, he never had heard the word "dragon" even once.

The idea of a real living dragon being around was absurd to Yuto to some regard, but then again the existence of magic and the einherjar like Felicia or Sigrun was already something supernatural. It wasn't much, but the existence of dragons was perhaps something that was very real in this world, but no one had discovered them until now. But he had his doubts about it. His rational human mind from the 21st century simply demanded confirmation. He could not just call this meeting off for some illusion or mistake. Still, he knew that in every legend there was at least a single grain of truth.

"From where do you have this information?" Yuto asked.

"Our watchmen on the walls, my father. They say the monster is heading this way as we speak. I came as fast as I could when they saw it." The man said.

"In that case, haste back and tell-"

*RRRRRROOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAARRRRRR!*

Yuto was cut off by a loud roar unlike any animal he had ever heard from outside. Terrified screams and shouts were heard from outside. Fear took a hold on the boy's heart as he ran out.

"Yuto!/Father!/Big brother" Mitsuki, Felicia and Sigrun shouted as they followed Yuto outside, leaving the startled men inside on their own.

As Yuto swung open his doors he saw a lot of soldiers in panic, shouting orders and grabbing bows and arrows as well as spears. Then a shadow rushed over the sky above him, blocking the sun for just a moment. Yuto looked up and froze completely.

Just like the guard had said, there was a giant reptilian creature drawing its circles above the patriarch's residence.

It was a wyvern, a dragon with only wings as forelimbs and legs.

The wyvern roared in annoyance at the soldiers below as a beat of its large wings created a strong gust which enough to blow the foot soldiers away as if they were toys. Now with enough space the dragon landed on the ground.

"It has landed! Attack!" Someone shouted as the soldiers attacked the reptile with arrows and spears, but the weapons broke upon touching the scales or bounced off without any effect.

"Its scales are too hard!" Someone shouted when the enraged dragon simply whipped its tail at the soldiers, killing dozens of them with a single strike. Blood and bodies flew through the air as the soldiers attacked from the other side. The dragon however turned around and Yuto saw how small sparks escaped the moth of the creature.

'_No. Don't tell me it's gonna-_' He thought in panic, but his fears were coming true.

The dragon opened its jaws and a stream of flames escaped its throat, bathing the soldiers in fire and burning them alive as they screamed in agony and dropped dead to the ground. Some more fortunate persons were out of the cone of flames, but still got burns or were put on fire as they screamed in pain and tried to put out the flames on their bodies before it did anymore harm. The stench of burnt flesh spread within a second over the place, causing Yuto and his peers to cover their faces.

A charred black man whimpered and wriggled on the ground as he could almost no longer be recognized as a human being as except for the white teeth everything else had been turned black like charcoal. In that moment a large spear suddenly hit the unfortunate soul straight through the head, spilling blood and brain matter onto the floor.

"Oi!" Suddenly a voice said as Yuto and the others just noticed that on the back of the wyvern a person stood, which jumped of reptile's back and landed next to the spread, before pulling it out the man's skull. Yuto looked at the person from head to two. He wore simply and skimpy clothes revealing his rather muscular body. The skin had a healthy tan on it while spiky brown hair sat on top of the scalp. Brown eyes looked at Yuto and his peers as the man gave the spear a wide swing, flicking off the blood from the blade, before shooting them a grin. "I heard a lot about the generosity of the Wolf Clan, but this isn't quite what I expected. Do you always greet your guests with spears and arrows?" He asked in a happy tone as if the deaths of all the soldiers or the one to his feet meant nothing. Immediately Sigrun stepped before Yuto with her katana drawn.

"Who are you!" She demanded as the wyvern turned around and gave a short roar at her direction, spreading its wings in a threatening manner. As it took a step towards the group it looked like Yuto and his friends were the next to turn into ashes, before the spearman stopped it.

"Hey! I'm trying to talk here. Shut up and do your stuff." The man said. The wyvern roared in protest, but the man was Looking unimpressed at the giant winged reptile. Growling it turned towards the remaining soldiers and those that came running towards the residence of the tribe's patriarch. Snapping its jaws and snarling at them, was more than enough to make them stop in their footsteps and reconsider approaching the dragon.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you. The big guy here could easily burn down the whole city on his own if he was feeling like it." The spearman said. "You are the boss of this place, right?" He asked Yuto. "Tell your men to stop harassing my wyvern unless they want to get eaten by it." Just as he said that the wyvern actually grabbed someone standing too far from the group and shook it around like a rag doll as the man screamed in pain and agony while dozens of sharp teeth easily pierced the armor and skin and mighty jaws crushed bones and flesh alike, squeezing out the blood. The crimson liquid run down the jaws and neck of the dragon and pooled underneath it.

"What? No! Bad wyvern! What are you doing?!" The spearman shouted now, as the wyvern looked at him with an almost bored look as it basically sat down and folded its wings together. "Drop it!" He said. The wyvern bit down the corpse harder, making blood spurt on the man's torso as the man screamed a last time before he died with blood pouring out of his mouth and his eyes rolling back. It was as if it was disobedient on Purpose. "I said drop it!" The dragon made growling sound at this and let go of the bloody corpse. Entrails and bones were exposed as a large gaping hole was now in the man's right thigh as blood dripped down from the reptile's jaws. Some of the guards who saw that actually vomitted on the Ground at this sight.

"That's better." The man said, before turning back to Yuto only to find Sigrun having her katana at his throat.

"Drop your weapon!" She hissed. The man sighed at this, before grabbing the katana with at bare Hand faster than anyone could see. First, he pushed the blade away, despite Sigrun trying to keep it at his neck, before slowly bending it like it was nothing before the thin metal blade just snapped, and the man let go with his hand completely unharmed, making the fragments fall clattering against the floor. Sigrun took a quick step back at this.

"So? Are you gonna tell your men to stand down or what? I may not like its eating habits, but it will attack again when you keep that up. I don't really appreciate it to be threatened either." The man asked once again. Yuto gritted his teeth as cold Sweat erupted from the pores on his back. While his mind actually wondered who this person was and what he was made of to simply shatter a katana with bare hands and not even receive a cut, not even a shallow one in return, he knew what he had to do.

"Everyone calm down. Put down your weapons." He said.

"Father, we-"

"NOW!" Some soldiers wanted to protest, but Yuto's shout cut them off. The guards quickly dropped their weapons, while the wyvern seemed to relax a little. The boy sighed at this, before he threw a look at the man before him who just casually was staning there, Looking at him with interest what he was going to say now. "Since you seem to know who I am, may I ask who you are?" He said. The man smiled and bowed, placing his free Hand on his heart.

"I'm called Phillianus, but most people just call me Phil for some reason. I've come here as a messenger of the newly founded Great Empire." He said. The Yuto's eyes widened. The same people that had sent them a message that they had received just yesterday were already on his doorstep. Not to mention that by any means they sent someone on a dragon's back for some reason! "I've come here, because my masters have grown impatient due to your lack of replying their letter. They feared that the letter didn't arrive."

"The letter arrived just yesterday during the early afternoon. A reply couldn't have been sent already." Felicia said. The man's smile didn't falter the slightest.

"Ah I see. They already had assumed something like that, but they sent me just to make sure. Man, the delivery around here seems to be quite the let down." said. "Oh well. How about you give me your reply now and I deliver it do my masters personally?" The spearman offered.

"Masters? Didn't you say it was an empire?" Mitsuki asked.

"Yes. While there is only one leader who rules over all, the different Areas to Keep it running are led by multiple Leaders. However, our leader is much wiser and powerful than any of them. After all, he's the best there will ever be under this sky and Walking on this land. In comparison to them I'm literally Nothing as I can't even comprehend the true meaning behind their actions in the slightest." The man said. Yuto didn't like this sort of behaviour. He was not just boasting here. The look in his eyes screamed devotion. Meaning this man was serious in his believe like a fanatic.

"I've decided to accept your invitation." Yuto said, while his peers looked at him as if they had all just swallowed a frog whole. "Approximately 3 days from now on was the day mentioned in the letter, right?"

"Actually it was 2 days from now on." Yuto cursed in his mind as Phil said that. 2 days to prepare to venture somewhere into what he knew nothing about was basically not preparing in the first place. Not to mention his responsibilities as the patriarch of the Wolf Clan. Phil sighed. "Oh well. I'll tell them you'll come in 3 days, if you find the way at least. But don't keep them waiting longer than you need to. They don't like waiting for everyone everytime they call out for someone and sloth is a sin after all. Well I'll be going then. I'll see you there... Maybe." He said as he turned away from the group.

With that he jumped back on his mount as the wyvern let out a roar, spreading its wings. The soldiers backed away fearfully as the creature took off with a single beat of its wings, catapulting the creature high above ground, before it flew away. And as fast as the dragon has entered the city it was gone already. Yuto felt like a massive weight had been lifted from his shoulders, but his knees shook violently and gave in, making the boy fall onto the ground.

"Yuto!" Mitsuki called out as she was at her boyfriend's side immediately. "Are you alright?"

"No." The boy said as sweat rolled down his brow in thick droplets. "Absolutely nothing is alright." He managed to wheeze out.

* * *

_Meanwhile_

There was no real source of light back in the grand room other than an omnious bluish light shinging through a window into the room. However, the light fell right on the spot before the small stair before a throne, casting it in shadows and making ist occupant invisible. The room was truly great in size as it was more like a massive hallway with several rows of pillars before the throne. It may sounded decorative, but even though arranged in straight lines the pillars were basically useless as most of the room was still shrouded in darkness.

Then footsteps could be heard, approaching the throne through the darkness with a steady and calm pace. Most people would probably be hesitant to walk into a room such as this, but the one that approached was clearly not. Whoever it was simply carried themselves towards the throne and along the rows of pillars. When finally reaching their destination, the person stopped before the place where the light touched the ground and kneeled, never touching the light. Yet the close proximity made the person visible.

It was a soldier wearing light armor as well as a short sword strapped to his hip. A helmet concealed most of his face as he looked like a trojan or spartan warrior. The blue light shining down upon the spot before him gleamed dully on the metal plates on his body. Thus his face was still unreadable for any onlookers, making it appear as if the helmet was actually hollow.

"Milord. We have confirmation now that the leaders of the clans have received our word now." The messenger said. The shadowy figure on the throne rumbled as it heard that. It shifted slightly in the shadows as its gaze seemed to pierce the messenger before it.

"Only now?" It replied in a deep voice, sounding anything else than pleased about this delay.

"I beg for your forgiveness, but as you know the people of this land are very primitive. Their clans do not possess an unifying structure in form of a great nation and constantly wage war amongst one another. This of course caused quite a chaos when sending the invitations." The messenger said, still kneeling and looking down as he did not dare to lift his gaze towards the one sitting on the throne.

"To hell with them!" The shadowy figure shouted. "If it is not even possible for this Great Empire to send a simple message to a fellow Nation, no matter the distance and status, we would be nothing but jesters pretending to be lords and rulers! One should burn those incompetent fools on a stake..." The booming voice went silent as a the clicking Sound of shoes resonated through the air. Someone stepped closer to the throne and eventually stopped before the light on the thrones side, now basically standing between the one on the throne and the messenger.

The figure was clearly a Woman as she wore shoes with heels and the skirt of a maid dress was visible in the dull blue light in the room. The rest of her figure however was concealed in shadows and thus hidden from the naked eye.

"What are you-" The large figure on the throne began as it stood up only to fall suddenly completely silent.

"The message has been sent to all leaders of the clans, correct?" The woman asked as her voice was light and gentle like a breeze, yet her tone carried a cold with it as if it was a phantom, that would make most people shudder in icy wind.

"Y-Yes-"

"That is all that is needed, then." The maid said as it stepped back into the shadows. "Milord, we will have to wait for our guests to come. They will arrive in 3 days and there is still much to do. Even yourself will need to prepare for their arrival." The maid said from within the darkness. The giant on the throne gave a rumbling hum from himself in response. "I shall see that everything will be ready for their arrival then. Soldier, you may leave now. Our leader will need calm and quiet to concentrate and think about what is going to happen soon."

With a quick bow towards the shadowy throne and the two figures before him, the soldier left the room. As the door fell shut with a loud noise, silence returned as a whole to the room.

* * *

_3 days later_

A group of no less than a dozen horses and riders rode across the dusty plain towards their destination. Yuto was accompanied by Mitsuki, Felicia, Christina and Sigrun as well as a few soldiers as guards to ensure their safety. Alongside them also rode Linnea as the patriarch of the Horn Clan and sworn younger sister to Yuto had also been given a letter like Yuto. The ride was silent and everyone was still digesting everything from the days before the departure.

Yuto felt a pit form in his stomach. He didn't like this even one bit. A mysterious force suddenly appearing out of nowhere on the continent and claiming territory for itself. A message delivered as an invitation to get to know one another with technology and materials that shouldn't exist in this time. And then there had been the messenger. Yuto felt like throwing up when he recalled the man and his unsettling devotion to his masters.

What really made him feel sick however wasn't that he thought of his Devotion as disgusting. It had been something else. The moment he spoke to him, Yuto suddenly had felt a massive pressure on him. A familiar feeling of promised demise. Killing intent stronger than even that of Loptr. Only when he flew away, Yuto managed to actually breathe again as his dizzyness disappeared. Mitsuki might not have noticed it, but there was no doubt. If he actually would have wanted to, he'd just have slaughtered everyone in Iarnvoir without a second thought and be done with the issue of the late reply.

And there were more things that caused great doubts to appear in Yuto's mind. The man had snapped a Katana in two with his bare Hand and was unharmed. What exactly was this man made off? While einherjar did possess magical abilities, they were not undefeatable as they were still human beings with all their needs. Perhaps this man Philianus as he called himself was an einherjar with defensive abilities, making him immune to most physical attacks, but even then a humman didn't simply had the strength to just snap a metal sword with bare hands.

And that was the reason for another question in his mind. Was this the actual power of the empire or was there more to this new power? Perhaps all their troops were like this. If so, Yuto would do his best to not antagonize them as if not even the sharpest blade in their armory could do anything against their troops, a fight between them, wouldn't even be a fight anymore. It would be just a one-sided slaughter.

That was why he had agreed on the invitation in the first place. If he had said that he declined the invitation, Yuto was not sure if he would actually still be breathing right now. It had been a cowardly and pathetic move out of fear and self-preservation, but he was sure it had been better this way than having the messenger kill him alongside everyone else in their city.

Finally there was the biggest issue in the room regarding the messenger. His mount was with no doubt an actual fire-breathing dragon, a creature that wasn't supposed to exist in the first place. It's very existence defied all that Yuto had thought to be true. A part of his brain actually still didn't want it to be true, but the charred corpses of soldiers and guards as well as the fact that he had seen it with his own eyes had proven him wrong. That or it was a very well made animaltronic with an integrated flamethrower and the ability to actually fly, though he doubted that since they were still in the Late Bronze Age. Legends of dragons were spread all across the globe or at least several reptilian mythical beings were later interpreted and put together into the category of dragons.

But that didn't change the fact that this man still had come to Iarnvoir riding on the back of this creature, that scientists of his time were very positive that it never did truly exist and was perhaps only the product of human beings finding the fossilized remains of dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals. A major headache started to force its way inside of Yuto's head like a drill as he thought about this. It had been hard enough for Yuto to somehow accept the existence of the einherjar and their abilities in the first place once he noticed that he was not in another world, but in the far past, millennia before even his ancestors would be born. And while he now had accepted this as part of this place that he had landed in, Yuto's entire picture of the world had been thrown upside down and would need to be discarded into the nearest trash bin with the reveal that actual mythical beings such as dragons actually did exist.

Now the Question was, if this Dragon was the only mythical creatue in the empire's forces or if they had more of them or perhaps even a larger variety of creatures thought to be a myth by himself in their ranks. After all, monsters did also appear in Norse mythology such as fairies, and others.

Unfortunately, Albertina and Christina had no luck when asking around for informations as they had left Iarnvoir immediately after the dragon riding messenger left. No one knew of the existence of this empire. It was as if they simply just appeared out of nowhere, which should be impossible. There were a few stories about large flying reptiles been spotted throughout the territories of Yggdrasil, but other than this there was nothing.

The only other thing they did notice however was a case of 3 human bodies brutally torn to shreds in a nearby forest. The corpses had apparently only been a few remaining limbs and lots of blood as the rest of them was simply... gone. Still, due to the remains of horses and a carriage with destroyed goods, it was presumed to be merchants that rested not far from the place they were found, that had been ambushed by rather brutal bandits in their sleep.

This was now another thing the Wolf Patriarch had to worry about. No bandit would do such a thing. Not just the mutilation of the bodies, but also to destroy the goods and horses. Anyone who has ever dealt with actual bandits in a time period like this knew that such people usually attacked for those goods to sell them oneself or the money the merchants had with them. That case was simply too much for such a crime.

*ROAR!*

A familiar sound from above made everyone look up as not one wyvern, but a small group of the flying dragons shot over their heads as they rode towards their destination. That answered that question. The group felt quite outnerved as the reptilian eyes from above looked at them as if they were going to dive down any second now like birds of prey and devour them or burn them to a crisp.

"We must be close." Yuto concluded as he doubted that the Empire would actually keep their mounts far away from their base of operations when they had just made a name for themselves.

And then they saw it as they left the valley they were riding through and no more hills hindered their view. A massive castle was reaching towards the sky surrounded by a large wall, more than twice as high as that around the settlement. The castle looked rather medieval with stereotypical towers than the castles of the Wolf and Horn Clan for an example. And given that they saw now just it, but also the walls around it and the walls at the very edge meant that this building was even higher than expected. Its height alone was almost overwhelming the for the diplomatic party as it felt like they were looking at a mountain.

A crudely shaped manmade mountain.

"This makes no sense." Linnea said quietly. Her voice was almost nothing more than a whisper.

"What's the matter?" Yuto asked, riding closer to her to understand her better.

"My father has told me of this settlement before. It used to be nothing but a small town where merchants only stopped by when heading further. It was not that big a year ago." Linnea said as she found herself unable to tear her eyes from the mesopotamian like palace that loomed over everything as if the building itself was a king itself, watching over all in its lands.

As they came closer they saw a pair of horsemen with large halberts before them as they turned around and flanked the entire group. What left Yuto and the others speechless were their mounts. There were beautiful horses with 8 legs under their bodies. Mitsuki, who had done some research about Norse Mythology while Yuto was gone, had read about these beings. Sleipnir, the 8 legged horse of Odin, the all father of the Norse Gods. However, Sleipnir had been one horse and not two.

The pit inside Yuto's guts became deeper and deeper with each revelation and each strange creature that presented itself before his eyes. Just what was this empire?

Anyway, the horsemen guided the group towards the gate, which opened as they approached the walls.

Inside the walls was a lot of space as there had been made a lot of space in front of the gate, allowing even larger groups of people to stand behind it. Following were broad roads along humble stone huts of the people, who followed their everyday business and looked at the new arrivals with interest. From what Yuto could say it didn't look too different from Iarnvoir. The streets were clean and the people seemed happy. Merchants sold their goods in form of cloth and jewlery and once or twice they saw two people clad in shining silver full body armor, patrolling the streets with longswords at their hips.

For Yuto it looked more medieval than fitting into the Bronze Age to be completely honest. The group rode further inside the settlement and both Mitsuki and Yuto noticed more things. Deeper inside the city, the simple huts of the people were replaced with more advanced architecture, here and there was a plaza with a spring in its center with marvelous looks that put anything they had seen in this world so far into shame in terms of beauty and size. Finally the group passed through the second layer of walls and arrived at the fortress' courtyard, where guards were already waiting for them.

Each one was clad in identical silver armor, leaving not a single thing of the humans beneath it to show. The two riders, that had escorted Yuto's peers to this place then turned around and rode away as the guards themselves helped the guests of the Wolf and Horn Clan to get off their horses, before taking them to the stables.

"Oi!" A familiar voice said as Yuto saw a familiar spearman approach the group with a smile. "I see you made it." Phil said, offering his hand to Yuto for a handshake. Sigrun immediately felt her hand wander to her sword at this, but only grabbed air as they had been forbidden to bring weapons. Not to Mention that the Katana to replace her broken one was still forged back home by Ingrid. Biting back some words, she went along her sworn father who simply shook the man's hand.

"It's a pleasure meeting you again Phil-dono." The spearman put his Hands up at this.

"Hey, hey now. No need to be formal with me. I'm just an ordinary dragoon and not someone important." He said, earning confused looks from Felicia and the others. And so he started to explain a thing or two about the Great Empire of Ur. First of all, dragoon was simply a term for dragon-riding soldiers, that could be seen as aerial cavalerie. Training a dragon to ride it let alone fly into combat was a hard job and the training was intensive. The reason why he was not in the air with his dragon was because he basically had a day off.

Then it went over to other things like the city's layout and the different important parts of it. While listening interested into all these things, Yuto couldn't help but look at his spear.

"Mh?" Phil said as he noticed Yuto's look, before smirking. "Seeing something you like, aren't you?" Yuto's face turned red at this from embarrasment much to Phil's amusement. "Hahaha! I understand that. Lots of kids actually keep staring at our gear for certain reasons." The spearman laughed.

"Well... it is a rather unusual weapon." Mitsuki said as she herself also looked at the weapon in Phil's hand. 3 days ago, they had not looked at the weapon at all due to the chaos the dragoon had brought with himself, but now that this wasn't the case anymore they got to look a bit closer to it. The weapon was about two meters long and seemed to have been made out of gold and silver, though such metals would be rather soft and thus not quite usable for weapons. However, from this close the members of the Wolf Clan saw how the weapon seemed to have a certain unnatural glow to it. The ornaments and few jewels that were placed into the weapon gave the spear a beauty that seemed to almost transcend into divinity or some sort of religious oriented design at least.

This of course begged the question how much wealth these people actually had in truth when the clans around them already treated glass and iron already as rare and valuable rescources.

"Mhm… now that you say it, it looks indeed quite a bit like something." Phil said, looking at his spear.

'_You didn't notice at all?!_' Yuto and Mitsuki thought looking at Phillianus as if a second head had just grown on his shoulders as he shrugged with a smile.

"Then again it is a spear made by our gifted blacksmiths of this Empire. HAHAHA!" Phil laughed, while everyone else shot the man a deadpan look.

'_He... really doesn't get it... at all..._' The members of the Wolf Clan thought all at once.

"Oh well. It doesn't really matter that much. I ain't exactly a blacksmith myself. I'm a warrior. My superior simply points me at the enemy and I destroy them. That's how I roll." Phil said as the look of a realization crossed his face. "Oh right. I think it's time for you to get you up there." Phil then led the group towards the gate of the fortress itself. The massive metal gates opened wide and the interior of this fortress left Yuto and his companions speechless. Inside 2 long tables were placed while a third and smaller one up ahead on a podium. All together the tables formed a U-shape. While the room itself was made out of stone, large chandeliers made of crystals were painting the room into a warm and welcoming light from the ceiling. Pillars could be seen at the sides of the room, while vases with flowers were placed to make add more color to the rather plain room.

Still everything looked as if it had been made by the hands of the gods themselves. The furniture, the decorations, even the walls and roof gave off the same aura of pride and luxury.

"Excuse me." A female voice made everyone look at a woman in a victorian maid dress. She had her rust brown hair in a bun while her yellow eyes scanned the guests. "Your table would be over here to the right. If you'd be so Kind and follow me as well as to wait for the others to arrive." The maid said.

"Welp, that's my call then. See you around, Wolf Kid." Phillianus said as he went back outside. The members of the Wolf Clan followed the maid to their places as she and others began to pour them already some water for a drink. As they waited for a couple of minutes, Yuto noticed the number of servants becoming less as the last touches were put on around them.

'_This place must possess massive wealth. To think such things already existed so long ago before even ancient Rome rose to power. I really don't know how this will turn out though. If this Phil and his wyvern really were not much a of a big deal in this society, then I honestly am afraid what these people might do if they were facing another nation in battle. No, don't think about that Yuto Suoh. It will be alright._' The patriarch thought to himself as he smiled at his peers.

Not one knew what was going on, but for whatever reason every single guest in room suddenly felt a massive pressure on them. It was as if the air pressure suddenly had increased to the point it would be crushing them like a beer can. Even though she had no weapons with her, all the people of Yggdrasil felt in that moment a fear, greater than anything ever felt before. Even the confrontation with Phil and his dragon had not been like that.

"Please inform the masters that their guests have arrived. I shall be taking care of the preparations." The maid that had guided them inside said in a calm tone as the other maid froze for a moment, before she nodded and hurried deeper inside the fortress. Another maid quickly finished what their coworker had abandoned to inform the lords as she simply helped setting decorations right and then disappearing in the fortress.

Now everyone was sitting there in silence. The members of the Wolf Clan were sitting there . The tension rose higher and higher when suddenly another gate opened.

Stepping outside were two men, but neither of them was human. One had short dark brown hair and a full beard on his lips as he was shorter than Yuto and rather round like a barrel. Dressed in light armor he carried his heavy person into the room as he approached the third table. The other man was the complete opposite. He was very tall and thin as if a breeze could snap him in half like a piece of glass. His long pale hair flowed down his back like a curtain of silk as he wore bright robes, which gave him an almost ghost like appearance as the light material flowed with every movement he made.

The two men then sat down on the very edges of the table before them leaving a lot of space between them and the chair in the middle.

"I welcome you patriarchs of the tribes of Yggdrasil and company. My Name is Alexander van Heimr, one of our emperor's advisors and supervisor of inner affairs."

"I'm Dodong Mus Pel, master blacksmith also advisor of our Emperor. Unlike this bean string however, I'm not that much of a buzzkill." The dwarf said, immediately earning a harsh glare from the elf.

"Hey wait! You can't be seriously addressing our guests like this in such a matter. And don't call me a buzzkill! Unlike you I work really hard on keeping everything together." The elf pointed at his fellow dwarf, who was ignoring him.

"Bah! Hard work? Your hands have never seen any. You may as well be a tailor. Or perhaps even a woman under that dress of yours. Do you even pee while standing, knife-ear?" The dwarf barked. Both men glared at one another, before turning away. The elf then bowed to the guests.

"I apologize for my unbecoming behavior." The dwarf meanwhile rolled his eyes. "Our master will arrive soon. Therefore I ask for a bit of patience for him to come." The elf said. Yuto and Mitsuki honestly were completely dumbfounded. There was literally an elf and a dwarf before them, who clearly didn't get along and they seemed to be quite real given that Yuto could see the long ears. Two more mythical races had just revealed themselves before the two teens from the modern Earth, where the very existence of such beings was simply discarded as nothing but a myth, a construct created by human fantasy.

And yet again their view on the world was thrown out of the proverbial window. First dragons, now elves and dwarves. What would come next? Vampires? Goblins? Demons? Yuto banished the thought out of his head. He could question what happened in between the time he was sent to and the time he was born that caused these beings to fade into the realm of fantasy later. For now he would have to survive this meeting first. However, with a pressure like that, patience was a virtue that was not easy to get.

It was then when the doors of the room swung open once more. Immediately the dwarf and elf stood up as if they knew who was entering the room. Speaking of which, Yuto had to admit he had been wrong about which next mythical species would appear before him. It ws no dragon, dwarf or elf, but also no goblin or vampire. It was a giant. Or at least the model for giants that would later appear in legends as it was a giant of a man. Standing more than 2 meters high with a muscular body, a beard and long black hair the large man walked towards the table. Dressed in fine clothes the man and walking with his head held high, he indeed gave off an aura of intimidation and authority. One of his hands rested on the chair as he spoke up as he gazed with a calculating look in his eyes at the assembled people of Yggdrasil.

"I am the ruler of this new great empire. My Name is Ur. Now introduce yourselves." He said.

It was not a question. The authority he emitted was so great that the pressure earlier coming from the maid seemed like simply a flea in comparison to this giant. Everyone quickly gathered their senses as everyone started to formally introduce themselves to the Emperor before them. As Yuto's Company did so, one could tell that fear was etched into the patriarch's and his spouse's face as the giant of an Emperor looked at them. Afterwards, the giant sat down and so did his two subordinates next to him.

"Now then." Ur stated as he snapped his fingers and a multitude of maids dashed out of Fortress, bringing dishes to the tables. The smell of food quickly caused some to salviate already. "Let us eat as a sign of generosity."

Everything was beyond words. The food tasted even better than what Yuto and Mitsuki knew from their time in the modern 2000s. Well, while Yuto definitely would never eat something with more pleasure than Mitsuki's cooked food, the meal before him was better than words could even describe. And he was not the only one captivated by this feast. His company found themselves unable to resist as minor fights between a few of them broke out over something both of them laid claim upon like the leg of a roasted bird or a steak.

And while the two companies basically stuffed as much food into their throats as possible, Ur and his followers ate with more civilized table manners… Or rather the elf did while Ur and Dodong broke out into laughter with an arm around the other's shoulder, drinking wine and ate with just as much gusto as the others around them, quitely irritating the elf at the other side of the table to the point where he actually cut through the plate his food rested upon and a small trail of smoke could be seen, generated by the heat the friction had created.

The aftermath was company of the Wolf Clan could barely lift a finger, while the rulers of the place had finished eating without any problems.

After giving the guests a few minutes to come down from the height that had been the sensational taste of the food, Ur stood up.

"Members of the proud Wolf Clan and Horn Clan. I have summoned you here before me for a specific reason. This empire is not very big yet, however in due time it will become powerful enough to stand upon its own feet. I do not wish to start any unneeded bloodshed between out two nations. That is why I hereby extend a proposal to you." The Emperor Ur said with a loud booming voice.

"I wish for our people to coexist peacefully with one another. However, as this land Yggdrasil and its people are divided between the clans I cannot see this happening. Clans fighting one another for mere patches of land, barely worth any blood spilled for them and leaving not only the land drenched in blood and barren, but also hundreds of innocent people without any families. And yet, whenever this Asgard Empire stretches its neck out of its shell like a tortoise, the clans tremble in fear and bow their heads before them. I have made it my mission to end this age of splintered clans and this Asgard Empire, that rules These lands with iron fist." Ur proclaimed and immediately no one of the Wolf Clan liked where this is going.

"I will tell you now my future course of action. I plan to unite the people of this land under my own Empire and than to destroy the Asgard Empire with the combined might of the People of Yggdrasil." Ur admitted, shocking most of the People.

"But attacking the Asgard Empire... That is madness!" Linnea said, jumping up from her seat. The Emperor laughed at this wholeheartly

"Madness? How funny... You sound like that boy Loptr I met not too long ago when I extended the same offer I made you to them." He said.

"Loptr?!" Yuto jumped up at this revelation. Felicia was right behind Yuto when she too heard the name of her older brother and patriarch of the Panther Clan.

"You made an alliance with the Panther Clan?" She asked loudly as Ur Held up his hand.

"Not really lad." Dodong spoke up. "Our master wants to unite all the people of Yggdrasil. That of course includes the Panther Clan and its people as well."

"Just like the Horn Clan and your own, we sent message to them and the Lightning Clan to come and talk to us as well. However..." Alexander said, lookking a little bit uncomfortable. "Things didn't turn out too well as you might imagine."

* * *

_Flashback_

_*CLANG*_

_With a loud Sound a golden cup hit the ground as its contents were spilled on the ground. Ur was looking down with at the one that threw it with narrowed eyes, Loptr, patriarch of the Panther Clan who had risen from his seat and panted heavily. The rest of his followers looked either shocked or surprised at him._

_"DON'T GET SO FULL OF YOURSELF!" The blonde man said as Ur actually thought about how ironic the situation at hand was. A person like him who was little more than an insect in comparison to what he had buildt was making such loud and irritating noises, that one would swat it away or crush it between their fingers just because of noticing their unsightly appearance in close vicinity._

_"I have seen your city and your people. But even if you managed to build all of this in little to no time, you will be no match for the clans, not to mention the Empire. You hold no territory, no valuable resources and no military force strong enough to defeat any of us and you dare to threaten us! The nerve of you is only..." Loptr kept on shouting stuff about the empire's supreme reign over Yggdrasil and other things, but at that point the emperor had already lost interest in this outburst, which now evolved into a long drawn monologue from Loptr._

_Ur honestly immediately zoned out as the boy kept rambling on and on. It was like a mosquito circling around one's bed when it was covered with a net. It couldn't get inside and thus held no more significance than the usual irritating sounds coming from outside like drunkyards patrolling the streets on their way home as they tried to walk straight, but failing miserably to do so, while shouting nonsense._

_Eventually Ur noticed that the sound had stopped and he finally looked back at Loptr._

_"Were you even listening to what I said?!" The young man exclaimed._

_"Not really. One cannot always be attentive whenever someone or something makes a noise." The giant of a man said in a dismissive manner. That ticked the patriarch off even more than before. The fact that his skin had not started to tear itself from his face as Loptr's face contorted in rage and anger beyond the capacity of meassurement by his brain was quite a miracle in the opinion of the emperor. However, he kept ranting on and on, until finally his patience was used up._

_"SILENCE YOU IMPUDENT CHILD!?" The emperor shouted, making Loptr and even Steinsvord too afraid to move or speak while a bright aura was emitted from the man before them. "I have humoured you for long enough, but now it is time for you to be silent. Is this how your people treat your hosts? By complaining and never stopping to keep running your mouths about your own supremacy over others? It seems your Father did the right choice by making that foreign Boy Yuto Suoh his successor over such a miserable failure of a leader such as yourself. Most likely, he will see more reason than you will." Ur stated. Meanwhile Steinthor was laughing inside his head about the situation Loptr was in, confronted with his own failures and the fact that his right to rule was taken away by that boy._

_"What do you mean by that?!" Loptr now couldn't contain his anger any longer now that Yuto's name had fallen, making his confusion more sound like complete bewilderment. The maid present in the room was the one that answered him._

_"Our master has invited the leaders of every clan and as such the Wolf Clan was naturally also invited." The maid said not losing her compusition at all in front of the infuriated young man. Before Loptr could do as much as take another step towards the emperor and spout some insulting rant, the maid had already grabbed his arm and slammed him to the ground, holding him down with one hand, without even looking at the blonde struggling to get back up. His followers jumped from their sets, though the einherjar of the Lightning Clan enjoyed the show. "I advise you to not start anything. You all are their guests and as such you should Show your best of behavior. Now wouldn't you agree, Loptr-dono?" The maid said with a smile that unconscioussly made everyone of the Panther Clan break out in cold sweat._

_"Enough!" The Emperor said as the maid immediately let go and distanced herself from him before kneeling._

_"I apologize Ur-sama. I spoke out of line."_

_"It's fine. Any loyal servant would react infuriated when their masters were insulted or attacked." He said. The maid bowed and left the room. The patriarch on the ground meanwhile shot the emperor a nasty glare. "Now back to you. My goal is to create a place where we can cooperate with one another, but for that we must stand together or fall alone. So I shall ask you again. Will you cooperate with me or not?" Ur asked. Loptr now managed to pick himself off the ground despite the fact that his arm most likely ached worse than ever before in his life. Still his eyes only bore a look of hostility and Anger in him. It didn't need any words to be exchanged. The emperor understood immediately._

_"I see. What a pity then." He turned his head to Steinthor. "What about you, Patriarch of the Lightning Clan. Do you accept our proposal or will you turn it down as well?" Ur asked. The red-haired man stood up at this and shot the emperor a cocky smile._

_"I can tell you are strong. And so are all your servants. Honestly I'm actually a Little bit scared here. However, this is also actually really exciting. So then Our or whatever your name was, I reject your proposal and hereby declare war upon your empire." Immediately everyone looked at the Lightning Clan patriarch as if he just grew a second head.  
_

_"Are you not aware what that means, don't you Steinthor?" Alexander asked. "By declaring war to us you have now quite literally placed yourself in this very moment in midst of enemy territory. It would not take too long to defeat and kill you to resolve this situation. It would quite literally be the shortest war this land would have ever seen." The elf spoke. He and his dwarf colleague were both very capable fighters themselves. If it was not for them being asked to not engage the representatives in combat during the meetings, they would have..._

_"Hehehe…" A chuckle rang through the air. All heads whipped to the emperor who started laughing at Steinthor's declaration. "Hahahaha! Ahahaha! I already like you boy! You at least got something to Keep that spine of yours up. Fine then. Have it your way and declare war to us. We'll see how this goes." Ur chuckled with a smirk of his own. "Loptr, since you have rejected my offer and apparently have nothing more to say, I'd advice you and your company to leave our home now, given that there is no cooperation to be expected of you."_

_The Panther Patriarch, instead of throwing another fit about how they would react to an insult such as this one, he and his followers left without another word._

* * *

"And that is how Loptr reacted to my proposal." Ur concluded his tale. The wolf clan looked rather shocked at this, especially Yuto and Felicia. They knew that Loptr was indeed an ambitious and headstrong person, but to pull off a stunt like that, was basically the same as if declaring war to them, which was already suicide given the obvious and prominent gap in power between this new empire and the rest of Yggdrasil. "And so I extend the same offer once more to you. Will you cooperate with me or not?" Yuto thought about this for a moment, before asking a question himself.

"What exactly does this 'cooperation' with you entail?" He asked.

"First of all we would no longer treat any Intruders of our territories from your clan as potential scouting parties, which usually get interepted by our troops at our border." Ur began. "That would help making the relationship between our subjects to one another improve. Also we are willing to help in times of need."

"What about yourselves? Are you not going to demand us to send troops ourselves?" Sigrun asked.

"As things are right now, we have already assimilated the tribes in this region and taken their territory for our own. Still there were a few foolish warlords and patriarchs that tried challenging us." The dwarf said. "As you can guess all of them failed due to our might. Speaking of which, we would also allow you to purchase weapons and tools and other products made by ourselves." Dodong said.

"Furthermore, given that you would cooperate with us we would also be willing to send out soldiers for the case that an outside force tries to attack you." Alexander asked.

"Anything else?" Yuto asked very sceptically.

"Well we would try to regulate things such as the purchase of weapons and tools and preventing them to be sold to unknown third party members, which means that we would need access to your own economy. Also we would put some of our troops within your territory to ensure the safety of our new allies with an immediate response. As well as for the case that you try to betray us for the Asgard Empire." Ur said.

*BAM*

Yuto slammed his hands on the table as he shot up from his seat.

"This doesn't sound like cooperation anymore but more like vassalation!" He said with a determined look in his eyes.

"Vassalation? For that I'd actually force you into submission and request you to send troops in the case of an attack myself, but I do not intent you to take away your people from you at all." Ur said. "As I have not requested that and honestly do not wish to bring war to your nation, your assumption would be incorrect."

"You'd still endanger others with that plan of yours. Don't you think the Asgard Empire would try to attack the other clans if they knew that they were helping you?" Linnea spoke up again.

"It is a risk I'm willing to take and a burden that I'll shoulder for the goal I aspire to achieve. You still haven't given me an answer yet whether you'd like to cooperate with us or not."

"You mean would we like to surrender ourselves and be your slaves with that control you wish to have?" Felicia remarked sharply.

"Slaves?" Dodong said as the dwarf ignored the sharp tone of the blonde young woman. "We were actually thinking about keeping you in your positions and simply put you under the supervision of our empire. We wouldn't treat our own allies as slaves. Slaves are simply labour forces. You would respected trade partners."

"Wait a moment. You participate in slavery?" Mitsuki asked shocked as she had not seen any during their ride to the palace. She was aware that slavery was a common Thing in this time, but it still didn't sit well with her.

"Of course we do young lady." Ur said. "Slaves are an important resource for a country after all. Any bigger project needs labour forces and so do smaller works. While regular citizens take care of most of the work, slaves are also used, but they are taken care off by providing them with sleeping quarters, food and clothes as well as treatment of their wounds in the case of accidents happening." The emperor concluded. "Now then, what is your answer Wolf Patriarch?" A heavy silence hung in the air at this moment. Then the silence was broken.

"I'm sorry, but we have to decline as well." Yuto said. "I'm not willing to work together with people, who I cannot trust just blindly. You have yet to prove yourselves for all those ambitious goals you have, including living together with us in peace the way you dream about it." He said while inside his mind he of course didn't want any war. Also since Leafa was a good friend of his he'd not want her to perhaps lose her home to this new power. Ur looked right at him, before he sighed.

"Very well then. I shall respect your decision. If you wish to stay you are welcome to do so. You may depart whenever you wish to." Ur said.

* * *

_Later_

The party of the Wolf Clan left the empire at the same day's afternoon. With Yuto rejecting the proposal of cooperating with Ur and his newly founded empire, he was basically a neutral force in a foreign territory. To be honest, the Wolf Clan's patriarch would have liked to go around the settlement for a bit and see how everything was operating, however he would rather not spend his time longer in this place than he had to. Eventually he and his followers left the city and rode back to Iarnvoir as fast as possible.

There were still so many questions that ran in his mind. In fact, it still surprised him that this newly established nation proclaimed itself an empire and even more that it managed to unite the tribes of that region. After all, the establishment of a new group alone usually attracted power hungry warlords that wanted to take everything for themselves. How did they manage to do that? Perhaps Christina and Albertina will be able to find that out, but not today.

For now they had to go back home. The intimidating aura of the emperor and his palace loomed over him and the rest of the Wolf Clan for a long time even when they could no longer see it.

At the same time, Ur looked out of a window from his castle, staring at the horizon where the Wolf Clan had rode towards to.

"A shame really. They had a lot of cute girls." The giant of a man said to himself, before walking away from the window to see the maid from earlier in the room alongside Alexander and Dodong.

"Perhaps you should safe that for a later date. The four major clans have rejected our offer. Preparations need to be made to take this situation head on." She said.

"Ur-sama, do you truly think it is a good idea to...breed with these inferior creatures?" The elf asked. "Clearly they are nothing more than insects before your might as you are the pinnacle of creation with all other supreme beings." Dodong laughed at the elf's words.

"Ur-sama has simply desires befitting a ruler such as himself. Taking everything between heaven and earth is only natural for the true ruler." The dwarf said almost sounding as if he was boasting.

"Still for our supreme lord to do such things with such undeserving apes… No, not in all 9 realms of YGGDRASIL this sounds right." The elf said as Ur looked strangely at him.

"Hello? Am I the only one who sees this opportunity before us clearly? We are in another world! We can do whatever we want!" He said spreading his arms in a dramatic matter.

"Geez, please shut up. It's bad enough that I have to put a silencing spell on my room to not stay awake by your nighttime activities..." The maid muttered to herself quietly enough to not be heard by the three men in the room as they talked about women. It was clear that Ur had apparently rather...well developed sexual urges and as such it was no wonder that he'd react like that to the mostly female party of Yuto. It was disgusting, but they didn't chose Ur as their ruler.

He had simply been the only one of the surpreme beings that remained at the end of YGGDRASIL.

"Hehahahaha! You just got to find yourself a girl. You're an elf. You will live for a long time now, so enjoy it a little. At least once in a while if you will." The emperor said as he laughed, while Alexanders face looked rather green in disgust. It was clear that he had no intention to have intercourse with the human women of this land. Elves, while beautiful and elegant in appearance, usually also had a prideful nature and interbreeding with other races was therefore something considered unacceptable...Or rather that is how another player created Alexander's character to be. The dwarf only laughed at all this situation.

Ur then glanced into the shadows of the room where someone else stood. "And you my dear. You were splendid. Slipping the letter into those documents was truly something I couldn't have done myself any better." He said Picking up the Person that was None other than Epheria, the slave girl Yuto had purchased some time ago and that lived in the palace with him.

"..." Despite the praise of the large man and the large friendly smile on his face, the girl remained silent and didn't smile as she looked rather sad.

"Huh? What's with the glum face? Tell your father what's wrong." Ur asked surprised.

"Just because you are sleeping with her mother doesn't mean you are her father." Groaned the elf NPC, having one of his hands in his face to cover his eyes in frustration.

"So what? She might not be my offspring, but I shall accept her as my own flesh and blood." Ur said.

As much as the maid in the room wanted to comment Ur's follish comment, it was true. Epheria had lost her father, who had dared to oppose Ur and his empire in its infancy state. Afterwards he did proceed to take her mother as his concubine, before she fled with her daughter. Ur sent scouts to get her back, but she was already gone and captured by slave traders. Later he launched an attack on said slaver only to have him admit that he sold them to the Wolf Clan's patriarch. What followed was Ur being so enraged that he mercilessly beat the slaver to death with his own bare hands in a rage more befitting a wild animal.

Later, an spy was sent into the palace to contact Epheria and make her a spy for the empire. And ever since she was giving out information of the Wolf Clan to the Great Empire.

"Please..." Epheria said. "Please keep your promise. I've done what you wanted me to do." Her voice was small as if a mouse was trying to speak to a dragon. Ur smiled warmly at the little girl.

"Oh? Did you think I'd turn against my cute little daughter in law and not keep my promise? I really must be the worst in your opinion." The man said, putting Epheria down, before putting a Hand on her head, rubbing it. "Don't worry my daughter. When all of this is over, you and your mother will be alive and kicking. Your mother will become one of my wives and you as my child I will make sure you get the treatment befitting the child of the emperor, who reigns over Yggdrasil supreme. Do not worry yourself with this. Your father shall take care of all of this." He then turned to his subordinates.

"Well first, we are going to deal with the clans and the local empire. It would be befitting to wipe them out in the same order they have rejected our offer. Poetic even don't you think?" Ur chuckled. "However whether that is a good idea or not will show itself now. Is everything ready?"

"Of Course Ur-sama. All troops were given weapons and armor as you have requested." The maid stated with a bow.

"I see. Bring me the mirror." Ur said as Epheria looked confused before a large mirror appeared before the Emperor. But on its surface one could see a city. More specifically, the city of this empire. The little girl was completely shocked and in awe at this. One could tell by the way she looked at it from behind Ur who chuckled as he saw her awestruck face. "Yes that is this very city child." He said as he made the mirror zoom into the palace. More specifically the room they were in right now.

"How is that possible?" The Little Girl asked as she saw herself in the mirror but from a bird's perspective with all the others in the room through the open window.

"Magic. Something that-"

"Ur-sama." The maid spoke up, interrupting whatever the giant of a man just wanted to say. "As much as I appreciate to see that you are bonding with your step-daughter, there is another important issue at Hand. The one you have requested this mirror to be brought here in the first place to be precisely." She said as the 3 men in the room suddenly felt a chill crawl down their spines.

"Y-Yes of Course." The Emperor said. He made a gesture with his hand as the picture zoomed out and flew across the landscape until it stopped in the lush jungles of the Panther Clan's territory. In midst of their town many soldiers were gathered in rows. Clad in iron armor and holding iron weapons Loptr sat on top of a horse with his sword raised high as he gave some speech that probably was more cliché than his vengeance trip for having his not so rightful place as the Wolf Clan's patriarch taken away by Yuto. One could already tell by just watching his mouth moving that the speech was even worse than Ur's when he proclaimed his goal to unite the people of Yggdrasil and bring the Asgard Empire to its knees.

Meanwhile, his wife Sigyn was dancing around using her spell songs not unlike a bard to enhance the troops morale. The fact that she was however dancing like a stripper was completely unnecessary for a bard, but not unwelcome for the male audience given her already revealing attire. The maid and Epheria were unaffected by this, though the small girl felt actually afraid when she saw thousands of soldiers lined up and ready for battle. If they were to clash with the Wolf Clan, it would be a bloodbath on both sides.

"I presume they will attack the Wolf Clan given their patriarch's personal history with them." Alexander said. "Loptr is after all Nothing more than a child that has been denied its favorite toy."

"They seem to have allied with the Lightning Clan once more, who have also already mobilized a large number of troops to attack the Wolf Clan. Until now our scouts were undetected and most likely they are waiting for the Panther Clan's signal so that their troops can attack the Wolf Clan together." The maid added.

"I personally cannot see why this Loptr boy is so salty about not being the patriarch. After all, by now he must be aware that children of patriarchs are not supposed to take the mantle of Leadership from their parents like it is the case in kingdoms and empires." Ur stated.

"Children in his age usually are rebellious in nature as if to spite their own parents. It doesn't need to make sense as long as it somehow motivated by some egoistical desire." Dodong stated.

"Is that so? Perhaps it was a good thing then that I did not make that power hungry brat part of my empire, though it clearly would have been interesting to see a worm like him try to overthrow me." Ur said with a laughter. He looked down on his step daughter again which looked a bit worried. He put his hand on her head as she looked up at him. "Don't worry. Your father will take care of this." He said once more.

"Ur-sama, shouldn't we pull back our forces from the Wolf Clan's territory? Fighting these lesser creatures might not be difficult as you yourself have demonstrated to be able to destroy entire armies of these pathetic insects. However, given that it doesn't take too many troops, shouldn't we just use those who are already inside their target's territory?" The elf NPC asked.

"No. I have already a plan." Ur said, making the NPCs look at him. "We will teleport our troops to a position not too far from the border to intercept the Panther Clan. In the case that some of the enemies make it past us they will be intercepted by those units within the Wolf Clan's territory Long before even reaching Iarnvoir.

"A splendid plan Ur-sama!" Alexanader stated. Dodong laughed.

"As expected of our ruler. Already a more step ahead than our enemy." The dwarf NPC laughed. Ur smiled to himself and the praise the NPC gave him.

"We are hereby in the state of war with the Panther Clan just like we are with the Asgard Empire. Whether the Panther Clan moves towards the Wolf Clan or ourselves we shall strike them down tomorrow before any damage can be done to the Wolf Clan. I want to have the pleasure of tearing down what that wolf boy has made myself before I strike him down and sent him all the way down to Hel."

"Yes Ur-sama!" The subordinates said, while Epheria was standing there, hearing everything and feeling guilty as she had betrayed Yuto.

* * *

_Later_

The stars shone brightly on the firmament alongside a wanning crescent moon that night as the world was as if frozen in time. Except for a few birds and animals, nothing made a sound alongside the wind as it flew over the meadows and forests, through streets and alleys of towns and villages or passed over streams and mountains. It was a quiet night indeed. However not in the mountains. Here something was still awake and never slept.

Deep in the mountainous regions of Yggdrasil, a cave had appeared out of nowhere several months ago. From outside it didn't look like much, but in truth this was not a simple hollow space within the rock, but a entrance to a dungeon from the DMMORPG YGGDRASIL fromthe year 2136.

Ever since the dungeon had appeared in this world, its inhabitants led by Ur have been invading the lands around them, which was now officially known as the Great Empire of Ur. Their hidden positions within a valley had given them the ability to attack and hide from the shadows of the mountains and remain undetected as they besieged the settlements of the people around them.

To the inhabitants of the dungeon, the humans of Yggdrasil were Nothing more than cattle and labour forces. Slaves that were to be used for less work and that could consider themselves lucky that due to their master being somewhat human, that they were allowed to live under his reign to begin with. The forces inside had only a little variety of beings as mainly human races like dwarfs and elves made up the defences. However, other sentient inhabitants were trolls and spirits in form of wraiths as well nonsentient races like wyverns, fenrir wolves and heidrun goats. Even undead draugr roamed some places within the dungeon.

With magical weapons and armor that each was superior to the likes of the clans around them, they were the hidden superpower within the lands of Yggdrasil, but now they had revealed himself and soon they would show this might to all of these lands.

On its last floor a certain maid walked around the corridors before arriving at a large door. Upon entering and closing the door behind her, she took a deep breath and sighed, before facepalming. She stood in an office, with bookshelves lining up at the left and right with only a pair of candle holders at the sides as decoration. Walking up to the one on the left she grabbed on of the candle holder's arms and twisted it upside down when the shelf to the right of it swung open like a door, revealing another room. Walking inside was a room with much more space in it with a bed, a desk and a mirror as well as a nightstand and a chest.

Sitting down on the bed, she finally spoke up.

"What did I do wrong in my previous life to deserve such an incompetent idiot for a guildmate?" She said as she looked up at the ceiling where a small crystal emitted light in the room.

This maid was called Norne and she was actually an YGGDRASIL player herself. The reason why none of the NPCs actually did greet her as such was because she had used the guild weapon a long time ago on each of them to put this setting into them. They were aware of her true nature, but they were never allowed to talk about it to anyone. Not even the other players or the other NPCs. It had been fun back then to put this little gimmick into everyone in the guild, but then she simply stopped playing until the message came out that the servers were about to shut down.

She had been within this very room when the transition to this world happened and back Norne would have jumped up and down in pure joy. But there was one problem and that was none other than this incompetent, perverted idiot Ur. He had been a member that joined their guild during her abscence. There was one thing about that one might want to know. She liked to look down on people, making her an unsufferable person for most people. She lacks empathy, has no problem to openly laugh at the misery of others and her actual plan with all of this was to simply manipulate the dungeon and its people from the shadows. She had after all picked the maid job class for this roleplay of a hidden mistress after all.

But unfortunately for her she was not the only player in the dungeon. At first she really wanted to just rip his head off as he spoke so pompous and irritatingly demanding to her as she indeed looked like a normal maid like the other meat puppets in this dungeon. However, than her mind hatched a plan. If she was to control this dungeon from the shadows, she'd need an official leader of the dungeon. Originally that would have been an NPC she would have appointed as she couldn't create any. Now however there was a much better toy right before her.

And so she just played along. Instead of demanding recognition from her kohai, she simply took the role of the housemaid to clean the dungeon, while actually using her powers to manipulate the dungeon and her kohai to invade the outside world. It was as if playing a game with unexpected turns and events whenever the dice was thrown. And it was sure entertaining for her as she watched all those people die by the hands of her kohai when he took up the mantle to conquer this new place.

However there was one big problem with that. The same reason why she was now inside the actual dungeon and not the imposter settlement she had Ur have to be built.

And that was Ur's apparently very strong sex drive. The maid player had stopped counting how many times she had actually caught either the sound of him banging some unfortunate woman or how many times she accidentally walked into a room where exactly that was going on at that moment. Mostly it was done with actual human women like Epheria's mother, who's daughter had been brought back and was now back in Iarnvoir to not make it look suspicious that she had been missing, but sometimes it also had been NPCs like some of the maids of the dungeon or other NPCs that were only meant to protect the dungeon like elven archers or amazoness warriors...

The fact that this man was apparently so self-absorbed or desperate to embrace a woman's body that he'd even fuck with one of the technically monsters from the game as some of them were simply spawn NPCs made by the dungeon, was disgusting so much she wanted to pour bleach into her eyes to forget certain images that had burnt their way into her brain and memory forever. Also she tried to avoid certain places in the dungeon now because of these 'traumatic experiences'.

Right now Ur was too busy screwing some unfortunate angelic paladin NPC alongside multiple other women, who's screams echoed through pretty much the whole castle in that place, so took herself and simply slept in her own bed in the dungeon. Of course Norne would never allow Ur to do the same thing with herself. She had enough of children in her real life and if that half-witted monkey would try to force himself on her, she'd show him what kind of difference a few years of experience in YGGDRASIL could make. She was more than positive that she could easily kill him and Norne had absolutely no problem doing so as she has already killed some NPCs of the dungeon in the past, though no one noticed it yet. It was not like she had no possible replacement for the role of the emperor.

And so the actual mistress of this dungeon took off her maid dress, laid down in her bed and turned the lights off, before falling asleep soundly under a very comfortable blanket. Tomorrow would be an interesting day indeed. Another bloody day of war. She wondered how it would go.

* * *

OC Profiles

Name: Ur

Epithet: Immortal Emperor, Great Emperor

Race: Immortal Human

Gender: Male

Biography: The human race only guild known under the rather hypcritical name 'Greatness' was perhaps one of the prime examples of the racism against heteromorphs, that was going on within YGGDRASIL. While allowing demi-human and heteromorph monsters in their base, they had the unhealthy habit of attacking players of both races that fell into both those categories as well, leading to a rather strained relationship with even demi-human guilds. However, despite this fanatical human supremacy supporting way of roleplay, they were more seen a joke as one could call them at best a low tier guild. Neither their players, nor their dungeon or anything about them in general was outstanding at all. Basically any other player with some sort of basic strategic planning could pretty much mob the floor with them even if they faced members on Level 100. Because of that most members left it just weeks after joining.

Ur, on the other hand, had been part of Greatness for more than a year, making him even more of a member than the original founder of the guild, who only made it as an experiment to see how long it would last, before disbanding. He had felt some sort of connection with the guild and saw it more like a roleplaying feature. Thus it was not surprising that despite not being the guild master, he was the only one who actually logged in within the last week of the game. Despite the name, the guild only had a cave dungeon with 3 floors, rather humble rescources in comparison with others and a certain problem with selfish players, that mostly abused the guild system for their own gain only to run off later with anything for them valueable.

When realizing that his avatar had become his body and that all of the guild itself was also now as real as real would ever be, Ur simply still viewed it as roleplaying and of course as a way to abuse his newfound powers in every possible way as the head of Greatness.

He has yet to realize that he is nothing more than a puppet on Norne's strings.

* * *

**Here's something different. Not only monsters can ruin the world. Humans can do so just as good.**

**And cliffhangers. Especially cliffhangers like this one. ****The cliffhangers are strong in this one.**

**To be completely honest, I had originally planned to break out into a rant about the already long dead horse, which is the franchise The Master of Ragnarök and Blesser of Einherjar for the end of the chapter, but then I actually counted more than 2000 words and thought to myself "Hey this is actually longer than you actually wanted this oneshot orignally to be." Sounds kind of hypcritical now that it is more than 20k words long, but I don't actually want to torture you with me ranting about this piece of literature.**

**Also it's not like I could change anything about it anyway and the only available source material is unfortunately very limited, making a further investigation for the question whether this franchise has actually some good in it or not impossible right now. Seriously, I could not actually make a full story with only the anime and the few scraps of literature in a language I can actually read with this franchise, that are available online for free.  
****Which I can only explain to myself in 2 ways:  
**

**1) The light novel/manga is somehow licensed and thus can't be translated online on websites that usually publish such things.**

**OR**

**2) Not even the people, that wanted to publish a freely available version of this manga/light novel online for people that simply cannot purchase it in their home countries or just for the fun of doing it, liked it in any sort of form, leaving the entire process unfinished hardly after even beginning and moved on as no one is actually going to miss it, leading to only a prologue of the first LN volume and the first two chapters of the manga.**

**(I presume the later is actually the case, given that if you look for raw manga chapters you find yourself more than 30 already, which still getting uploaded. And that means a lot when even stuff like In Another World With My Smartphone gets normal translated chapters uploaded on such websites.)**

**This is also the reason why instead of showing how Ur and the guild of YGGDRASIL took claim of the lands of Yggdrasil by invading the lands from the guild base and killing hundreds if not thousands of people in the process of conquest I only gave a foreshadowing to the fate of Yuto, the Wolf Clan and by extension all of Yggdrasil unless they don't stop with just Yggdrasil (wherever that is on our globe as I only have a vague idea where it is) and begin to take over the world roughly a thousand years before the Roman Empire was a thing.**

**If I had enough information on this one series I think I could pretty much turn this concept into a fully fledged story starting with the arrival from YGGDRASIL in Yggdrasil (as if that doesn't sound confusing at all), then starting to explore and conquer this new world and eventually introducing more magical and mythical things to the world and using that to obtain complete dominance over the lands of Yggdrasil.**

**(You know like ACTUALLY MYTHICAL CREATURES THAT APPEAR IN NORSE MYTHOLOGY, WHICH IN THE CANON DON'T EXIST TO BEGIN WITH! (panting) I'm sorry, I just really hate the fact that this is a thing.)**

**So yeah, if anyone would ever do that type of story, despite all the factors I do not wish to list up right now as if I did so we would still be here by tomorrow, I'd try to give advice for that, however as I stated with only that much material my hands are tied tightly.**

**So I hope you enjoyed this chapter and I'll see you next time. Have a nice day :3 **


	9. Chapter VIII: Evolutionary Jump

Chapter VIII: Evolutionary Jump (Black Bullet)

* * *

Lost Christmas. The time when the world of mankind had ended.

10 years ago in 2021, the Gastrea Virus spread with tremendous speed across the entire globe and brought forth the most terrifying foe mankind had ever seen: the gastrea. Gastrea were inividuals infected with the virus. After a very short incubation time, the virus spreads across the entire human body and attacks it on a genetic level. The DNA is overwritten within a matter of mere minutes and the cells are repurposed and changed. As a result the infected turns into an animal like monster with enhanced strength, speed and durability as well as a nigh invulnerbility to regular weapons.

The fact that the virus was spread through body fluids and it's extreme high contagious nature brought mankind to its knees. The war that humanity fought against the gastrea ended with their loss and nothing but annihilation awaited them. It was in midst this war that scientists discovered the vital weakness of a gastrea. Their regenerative abilities were greatly weakened by the rare metal varanium. In response to that, weapons were built that could kill the gastrea and at the same time varanium was used to create massive pillars around the few settlements that humanity found refuge in. These monoliths were all that stood between the relative normal human life and the gastrea infested lands beyond that nature managed to reclaim for itself.

Now the gastrea were the dominant species on the planet now that they had dethroned humanity from the top of the food chain and most non-botanic living beings outside of the monoliths had mutated to gastrea. They were quite literally the majority of Earth's population now with humanity's prior 8 billion being cut to only a tenth of it and the remaining 90% either killed or turned to gastrea.

* * *

"GUUUAAARGGHH!"

*FLOSH*

A gallon of blood hit the forest floor, painting the soil and plants beneath crimson as the being whose blood was spilled vomited once more a large amount of blood. For hours it had been wandering these lands beyond the monoliths, looking for something only to now be at the verge of death itself. At least that how it felt for this unfortunate creature. It was no human, but rather a humanoid frog. Large yellow eyes twitched around wildly, scanning the environment for anything that moved A broad mouthline with no teeth sucked in air as it barely got any oxygen to its lungs and blood stained its pale slimy skin as under its head. Its long tongue hung down its mouth like a drop of water as if it was about to fall off any moment now.

Indeed the creature looked just like a normal pool frog only larger, standing on ist hindlegs and wearing something like a coat over its green and black skin.

This being was both surreal and almost comical. It was as if a child had been asked to draw itself the famous fairytale figure from the work of the Brothers Grimm. However the amphibian was real and not quite in the best condition as one could imagine. Lost in a foreign forest without any means of orientation as it staggered across the undergrowth and surrounded by aggressive fauna in form of the gastrea.

But that was not even the worst part of it. However, even though this frogman was throwing up blood in an alarming rate, there were no external injuries visible. The reason for These bleedings was something far more vicious. While the gastrea that had attacked it had failed to inflict any wounds on the humanoid amphibian, the Gastrea Virus somehow managed to get into its body. It didn't know how exactly, but it didn't matter whether it had been absorbed through the Skin or through blood or saliva or if it had been some airborne particle that carried the virus into their body. All they knew was that soemthing was terribly wrong right now.

Pain was no new experience for this being, but the pain that was currently burning its way through the body was something entirely else than anything it had ever encountered. The virus was aggressively attacking its body on a cellular Level as if every Fiber and cell of its being was lit on fire, while the pain receptors kept sending their Signals through the spine to the brain as if working overtime.

The frogman coughed violently before another gallon of blood erupted from its Broad mouthline onto a tree, which it staggered against. Barely keeping itself on its own two feet by pushing itself against the bark with one hand, they shuddered in pain. They didn't know what was going on. One hand desperately reached out and vanished inside a small crack in the air, before pulling out a simple vial with a crimson fluid not unlike blood out. The hand was shaking violently as the fingers popped the cap and the contents vanished inside the amphibian's mouth. For a short moment, the body stopped shaking, but unfortunately it quickly began shaking in pain again when the creature hunched over in pain.

'_It didn't work. Again. Dammit!_' They thought as another tremendous amount of blood splattered across forest floor as the legs finally gave way, unable to support the creature any longer. '_I'm going to die. I'm really going to die here. In some fucking forest in the middle of nowhere._' They thought as they tried to get up again, but their hands only uselessly tried to grab a hold on the tree. The pain was too much. The Feeling of being torn apart from the inside out was too much to handle. Yet they refused to scream in pain. Scream for help. For salvation to come.

Deep down they knew no help would ever come.

When that realization sunk into their mind, they could only break down in tears, which rolled down from the flat head. Quite a few times they had tried to prolong the effect of this...whatever it was, that was Eating them up from the inside out but now they had no potions left anymore to heal their wounds. Now they could only endure the pain.

They might even be that they wouldn't even survive the transformation into a gastrea. Yet this body refused to give up and just die on them without a fight.

The rustling of the leaves and the breaking of twigs and branches under the feet of something made the amphibia perk up. They tried to turn around, using their arms as the only somewhat functional appendages left as their legs shook violently in pain unimaginable. Clawing the ground with their fingers they managed somehow to turn their body onto its back and sit up a little, by leaning its up on one arm. They looked at the treeline and spotted gastrea around them, approaching the weakened being creature in midst of their territory.

The gastrea came in many types as the virus would simply overwrite the DNA with any available animal DNA that it had at its disposal and as such no one could actually tell what an infected would become as a gastrea if the source of the virus was not knonw. For example, being bitten by a spider gastrea had quite a high change of turning into another spider gastrea. But it was also pretty random at other times. Also since gastrea made from humans usually didn't bore even the slightest resemblance of their former selves, it was impossible to tell what a gastrea had been before the mutation. As such it was useless to ponder about the variety of creatures that came from the forest in the first place. Whether they were insects, reptiles or strangely looking amalgamations of all sorts of animals, it didn't matter in the slightest at all.

This amphibian humanoid had already encountered these creatures before and deep down they knew that they were the reason for their own state of health right now. A feeling of anger and hatred spread in his mind alongside the desire to kill them all, almost making them forget the pain they were in, but only almost as a new pain from its abdomen knocked the wind out of their lungs.

But surprisingly the gastrea as numerous as they had gathered, didn't attack the withering amphibia. Instead they simply looked at the creature before them and waited patiently. Their eyes were fixed all on them, but not as single one of them moved even a little closer. As if an invisible line had been drawn on the ground, the gastrea didn't step over it. It was as if komodo dragons had followed a deer one of them had bitten weeks ago as it would bleed out and become weaker until it would be too weak to even move, before they would be going in for the meal.

They already knew that this creature was going to become one of them very soon. How they knew was something no one knew. They had no Need to attack anymore. They could basically smell the scent changing. It was just a matter of time.

The frogman on the other hand was too much in pain and agony to actually care about that. Their instincts told them get away from them, but all their limbs had failed them now. There was no escape. Whatever they had in store for this defenceless amphibia, they were at their mercy and their mercy alone. Pants and croaks of pain escaped their mouth as the pain become stronger than ever. The burning of every part of their body had returned stronger than ever before.

*CRACK*

Then suddenly one of their forelimbs suddenly twisted itself in an unnatural angle, tearing its own muscles and tendons apart as well as slowly Breaking the bones within. The bones in arm and fingers seemed to twist and break themselves as if having developed a sadistic mind on their own. The skin began to blister and break as blood oozed out from open wounds that increased in size very fast and amorphous tumour-like growths started to grow on the amphibian's body.

"AAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!" The amphibia let out a last bloodcurling scream into the sky above the forest as the transformation took its gruesome course, while bones were broken and skin, musles and tendons were torn apart alongside the internal organs. From this destruction of the body on a cellular and genetic level, something new would emerge from this horrible metamorphosis.

* * *

_Later_

After he Great Gastrea War in 2021, most countries of the world used whatever varanium they could get their hands on and built monoliths around certain settlements. With the metal being already rare on Earth and thus the supplies being rather small, most countries could only save a few settlements by creating a ring of these monoliths around them. Back then this had still been possible, but with the gastrea threat showing no signs of becoming smaller, travels acrossthe world were anything but easy in the current time. Because of this it was very unlikely that mankind could ever expand their territories outside of the monoliths, where now only wilderness and nature resided alongside the gastrea.

Tokyo Area was one of the settlements that were still standing 10 years after the great gastrea war. Actually most countries did build the monoliths around their capital cities for obvious reasons. Within the last decade, most of mankind was focused on reestablishing the living standards of 2021 before the gastrea appeared.

And they succeeded. With only a gastrea slipping past the monoliths once in a while and large number of personell responsible for public security, the people of the Tokyo Area were living a normal life as if the great gastrea war never really happened.

That was except for a new class in society, that emerged with the appearance of the Gastrea Virus and showed one of mankind's most disgusting faces: the so called "Cursed Children".

When the Gastrea Virus enters a womb of a pregnant woman and a zygote, the child will always be born as a girl with red, even if the infection happens long before the cell specialization and independent from the genetic material bestowed by the parents, meaning that even if a zygote got a X- and a Y-chromosome, the Gastrea Virus, Forces the gender of the child to be female. Because of the Gastrea Virus having emerged 10 years ago, none of the cursed children are older than 10.

Their most prominent trait of these children are bright red eyes, which led mothers to either abandon their children right after birth or to kill them oneself in their state of panic and sometimes insanity. These children were seen as monsters by society and were immediately cast out by most people. reason for These acts of violence and social isolation was the fact that these children still had the Gastrea Virus within themselves, however unlike ordinary gastrea had something akin to a resistance to it as they were born with it. That meant that unintentionally they could infect other humans with the virus as they were still carriers of it.

As their lifestyle was not the best one. Some of them beg for money, others steal food to get by. Even then people would often resort to violence against them despite their situation or young age and some people would even kill them just for the way they were born as.

Still society had found a use for some of these girls. Due to the virus within them, the cursed children possess superhuman abilities, depending on the animal DNA that the virus had linked into their own DNA. Because bullets and other weapons made of varanium were the only things that could effectively wound a gastrea by disrupting their regeneration by emitting a certain magnetic field that weakens and kills them, the Civil Security Corporations decided to take a new approach towards the invading gastrea problem.

In pairs of one cursed child called Initiator and a normal human called Promotor, people were supposed to combat the gastrea threat more efficiently. Initiators with their superhuman strength, speed and regeneration and promotors as supervisors of combat situations and assisting their initiators. I didn't take too long until even a ranking system of all pairs were established and the corporations were competing with one another just like they had before 2021.

Still, the fact that the personell of such corporations both initiators and promoters, which would risk their lives for the safety of others, didn't change the fact that cursed children were still seen as monsters.

For that reason, Rentaro Satomi was lucky that he was able to provide his Initiator Enju with a somewhat normal life. Right now she was watching with her friend and fellow initiator Tina Sprout an episode of their favorite magical girl anime. Watching Enju smile and laugh about the show on TV brought a smile to the black-haired teen's face. Enju had been through a lot, but thanks to the job and the loving care Rentaro gave her, she was able to live a life that was at least worth fighting for rather than just surviving everyday just for the sake of living another day.

Still, the job as an initiator was not exactly the safest profession either. Every day they went out to ensure safety for others when others wouldn't protect them. From the depths of his heart he'd like to give Enju, Tina and all the other cursed children a normal life, but unfortunately this world was not ready for that yet. It might still take a decade or maybe even two until people would finally accept the cursed children as fellow human beings and all that hatred and pain could finally put to rest. However, there was also another thing that bugged him.

The erosion rate of each cursed child was among other things a value that determined their control over the gastrea Virus. The higher they came, the faster they would become gastrea themselves. Once stepping over 50% and it was over. That was the point of no return and the human body would finally mutate into a gastrea. That was another reason why no one wanted the cursed children around themselves.

And Enju was approaching her limit fast. Like all initiators she too was given a certain medicine to slow the process down, however the more she used her powers, the faster would the erosion rate grow. And when it did...

Rentaro shook his head at this thought. He knew what needed to be done if that happens… He had done it before already. He'd not let Enju suffer like that.  
But that was something for another time. Now was the present and he was just happy for Enju to have a little bit of normality this evening.

* * *

_Elsewhere in the unexplored territory_

The stars shone brightly in the night when a helicopter flew over the foliage of the trees which mostly covered the land. Without human interference, the wilderness simply reconquered what mankind had taken away from mother nature for centuries as plant life grew from every possible spot, overgrowing old pavements of sidewalks and bursting through the old asphalt of roads. Bridges and other high buildings were also either overgrown with plant life or had collapsed after a decade of no maintenance and erosion by the forces of nature.

Most of these regions once dominated by mankind as the apex predator of the world had fallen into a state of disrepair.

However, there was still someone interested in what was going on out there. That's why someone with the money and resources had requested a Team of a civil security corporation to come and investigate it the land outside the monoliths. Inside the helicopter was one initiator and promotor pair, a middle aged woman with long brown hair and blue eyes dressed in military clothes and a little girl with short black hair also in a military uniform.

"ETA in 1 minute." The pilot informed the pair as they sat quietly in their seats, while the aircarft circled around before landing in an open area within the ruins of a city. Once less than a meter away from the ground, the female duo went out of the chopper and immediately the woman had an automatic rifle drawn while the girl had her hand on the handle of a large machete. The pilot still landed behind them as the rotor slowed down to a stop.

"Did you manage to sniff anything out?" The woman said without even looking at her initiator.

"Area secured. No gastrea in near vicinity." The young girl said with a voice about as emotional as a block of ice.

"Hey!" The pilot yelled over to them. "Don't forget to give me a signal to lift this baby off the ground."

"Will do." The woman said as she and her initiator walked deeper into the former human settlement along the main road.

While they made sure that nothing was left unnoticed from their eyes, both members of the team spoke no word, only communicating with quick hand signs. Both of them had accepted a request unlike their usual work. Someone apparently noticed a decline of gastrea in this area so someone sent a team of scientists and personal security guards over to investigate the situation. After all, if there was some sort of varanium deposit around here, the gastrea would naturally avoid that area. Or if there was something else that caused the gastrea to basically leave or vanish it would be most important to look what was going on out there.

It might even hold key Information about another way to fight off the gastrea without using cursed children or varanium.

However, not long after they were sent into this wilderness devoid of gastrea, communications went silent and now they were on a rescue/investigation mission to find out what happened out there and if possible recover any surviving personell. If it wasn't for the good payment of the job, the promotor probably wouldn't have taken it, but here they were now.

In a slow pace they kept advancing forward as they couldn't help but notice something. There was recently damaged buildings, reducing them to ruins as well, but there was nothing that had overgrown them yet. Here and there were large craters in the ground as well and the empty shell of bullets on the Floor which clicked slightly when stepped upon hidden in the plants showed that a battle had just taken place recently.

As the traces of destruction became denser, the two of them felt an uneasy feeling crawling up their backs. That was when they saw something unusual laying on the ground. The severed arm of a gastrea. Its mutated skin was covered with an exoskeleton akin to those of ordinary insects and possessed also sharp claws. The base where it would most likely have extended further to shoulder however was scorched black. A bit further ahead was another large crater, which was also scorched black. Both the initiator and promotor looked at bit shocked at this, while they kept moving forward.

They were not worried the slightest. If there was any gastrea nearby, the initiator would have alerted her partner already. Being a shark model, she was able to pick up the bioelectrical signals created by living beings generated by the heartbeat. With other words it was not very easy to hide from her.

Other than the arm before, there were no traces of a gastrea, but that only intensified the uneasyness in both girls. That was when suddenly a strong stench of decay hit their noses, almost making both of them throw up on the spot.

"What the… hell..." The promotor said at first, but then her voice died as she saw something standing there proud and high, which shouldn't be there. It was a large pile of a dark mass, which was assaulted by a large number of flies as they loudly buzzed around it. And sticking out of it at one place and another were the remains of larger and smaller gastrea. Bones and other hard remains, both fully preserved and broken stood out like sore thumps with their pale surface from the pile. Putting one and one together, the two of them realized what the stinking mass before them actually was...

"Now that's a huge pile of shit!" The promotor blurted out as she and her partner both shuddered at the thought as they quickly walked away from the large pile of excrement. However, the short moment of unprofessioness didn't erase their unease. No, it only amplified it as excrement needed one thing to exist. An organism to leave it behind in the first place. And something had apparently taken a liking on preying on gastrea.

There were no cases known of gastrea attacking or devouring one another. Or that they needed to eat in the first place. Still, they had to find out what happened to the scientists and neither of them wanted to actually tear that pile of feces apart to see if any human bones were still there. So they had to pass on. Even though they only communicated with hand signs, the two of them could barely hide their emotions in this moment as their hands gripped their weapons tightly.

When reaching a cross section the initiator suddenly stopped, making the older promotor stop in her tracks as well. The cursed child's eyes were locked onto something on the road leading away from the main street. No, she was looking in its general direction. Quickly signaling her partner to approach with cautious, the two of them moved towards it. Once again there was nothing, but recently destroyed buildings on their way.

But in midst of this destruction they came across something else. In the road before them was a rather large and deep hole. According to old maps, it was possible that it had been a tunnel, whose roof had simply collapsed. But by the way the initiator stared down at the hole there was more to it. Her body started shaking violently and she began to sweat at lot. Something was down there and it put this trained shark pup on edge. The promotor was pulled out a glowstick and turned it on, before letting it drop into the hole.

It hit something rather fast as it illuminated a soft and wet milky membrane. Immediately the promotor jumped backwards in the case that whatever it was came jumping out. But when after minutes no reaction came, she went back to the edge to see down once more with her initiator. The glowstick simply laid on whatever it had landed down upon motionlessly. It didn't illuminate enough to show what exactly it was that it had hit, but from what little she could see it seemed to fill up the entire hole. The artificial white light was reflected by the wet surface, while the stick itself left an impression in the soft material due to its weight.

"What are we going to do now?" The initiator asked thorugh sign language. The promotor answered in kind.

"Still didn't find the eggheads. Probably won't anymore. Look around for their gear or anything." The promotor said as she was about to leave already having turned around.

*BU-BUM*

It was right then when they had their backs turned, when suddenly a gust of warm and humid air hit their backs and this sound echoed through the air. The promoter turned around, but stopped when she saw her partner's initiator's body now began to shake and sweat violently. Her breath became uneven and loud, unlike moments ago. Her eye were wide open in shock and fear.

*BU-BUM*

It took the older woman another second to look down and saw that the substance the glowstick had landed upon was moving. Ripples of movement were sent across its surface as it jiggled more and more. The glowstick was rolling over its surface before actually disappearing from view. But not without showing an inhumane red eye pressing against the substance looking straight up the hole to the promotor.

*BU-BUMP*

Then the realization hit her like at truck when the ground started to shake violently. This noise was a heartbeat coming from the being within that membrane. And by the increasing tremors and the look on the initiator's face, it was a very bad. Never before had she seen such an expression on the shark model's face since her early days as an Initiator as ever since she had trained her, she faced even a Stage IV gastrea without flinching. Even if there was fear or worry in her stoic face, she never contorted her face like that.

"We have to get back! Come on!" The promoter yelled as she ran. The little girl snapped out of it and followed her partner. The ground shook more and more as a sound unlike anything ever heard came from within the hole. The ground at the edges of the hole began to crack open as something pushed it from below upwards, breaking even the old pavement of asphalt. "Get the damn chopper Ready for extraction! We are leaving immediately!" The promotor shouted into the microphone of her communication device.

*CRACK*

*BOOM*

Then the ground behind them seemed to stretch upwards as something massive pushed the ground above. The strain was too much as asphalt was torn apart and broke, while ruins of Long abandoned Buildings collapsed around the fleeing promotor and initiator pair. They could already hear the engine of the chopper, but before they could have reached aircraft, it simply took off before their eyes without them.

"You have to be kidding me! HEY GET BACK DOWN HERE! WE ARE STILL HERE!" The woman shouted.

"Sorry, girls. I got my orders to ensure that this baby makes it back safe and Sound. Good luck."

Now the initiator understood why they had been chosen for this job. They were expendable. No one would miss them. Death in their work was expected. Two low-ranked members of a civil security Office getting ahead of themselves and getting killed. That would be how their lives would be remembered. If they were remembered at all.

Then a long shadow grabbed the aircraft and within the next moment it was gone. The low exploding sound came from behind the two. A presence as if a mountain had suddenly appeared behind them made them break out in sweat. They didn't need to turn around as the warm and humid air hitting their backs was enough confirmation already. The thing from that giant hole in the ground was right behind them.

Their hearts beat to fast and loud that one could hear them by just standing by.

It was that moment that the promotor kicked her initiator in her small chest, making her gasp for air and fall to the ground on her back as promotor ran herself.

"BE A GOOD GIRL AND BECOME GASTREA FOOD FOR ME, WILL YOU?!" She shouted over her shoulder. The young girl was shocked in that moment. She knew her promoter didn't like her too much ever since she had spoken up once to not be dressed up as a doll and would rather fool around with men, but that she would just leave her to be eaten so she could survive another minute or so, really shattered her image of the woman running away right now. Despite a harsh military like training, she had shown her kindness and care at times.

And still... she just left her here to die. The young girl had no second to be mad at her promotor as a giant shadow loomed over her. For a moment, she thought she was done for, but then she noticed something. The red glowing eyes of the gastrea were not fixed on herself, but on the promotor who ran away through the tree line. Unmoving it stood there, simply staring with unwavering look at the one that had sacrificed their partner for their own safety.

Meanwhile, the promotor did her best to not stumble upon anything. Running through such terrain was normally no problem for her. Before the Great Gastrea War she had been part of the self-defense force and received a good training for combat situations. After the war was lost, she joined some civil security corporation as it meant that she could kill whatever gastrea managed to sneak into the city.

However, she really hated the fact that she had to work with one of those brats as a partner. After all they were part gastrea themselves. Unfortunately it wasn't up to her so she couldn't just go around and gun down every single child with red eyes in those outer areas of their settlement. That would probably do everyone a big favor, but she couldn't as that was still illegal and would probably make their job much harder without any initiators.

Thus she had no problem sacrificing one of those little monsters if it meant to prolong her own demise. Her life was the important one, not that of some sewer rat. No, a monster in disguise. Her previous 'partner' as she might as well could call that weapon on two legs had shown her what the true colors of those cursed children were. Once their erosion rate was above 50% they'd just turn anyway and to be honest, it wouldn't be so bad if they did so in public. After all, then people might wake up and see the truth.

"Just got to make it back..." The promotor said to herself over and over again like a broken record. Using her compass she could easily find her way back to the settlement she came from. It might not be Tokyo Area, but it was home nonetheless.

*SNAP*

In the next moment, her arm was yanked back by a long pink muscle she identified as a tongue while long toothed tendrils latched onto it like the tentacles of an octopus, but with viscious hooks closer to a centipede's leg that grew irregulary all across the appendages length. The promoter feel on her back and butt at this as the tongue Holding her now dislocated arm dragged her across the ground with high speed.

"WHAT? NO! YOU CAN'T BE SERIOUS NOW!" She screeched like a banshee as she tried to free herself desperately, but the varanium knife she wanted to use to cut herself free simply bounced off an invisible barrier, before even touching the flesh. "NO! LET GO LET GO LET GO!" She screamed. Again and again she brought the knife down upon the appendage that held her tightly. The pain was unbearable at this point. The hooks dug themselves deep into her arm and even her bones, while the high speed of her being dragged across the Floor had torn apart her clothes on the back. With rocks and other hard materials sliding over her exposed Skin now it was as if her back was dragged along a saw's edge as gravels and branches bit into her skin, leaving deep and bloody scratches while some of the particles got stuck in her bloodied skin and flesh.

"AAAHH!" With a last outburst of pain and despair she tried stabbing whatever it was that Held her in its grasp, but this time her grip was too loose and when the knife hit the barrier again, it was knocked out of her hands by the recoil, making it fall uselessly to the Ground as she was still dragged across the floor. "NOOO-" Finally her screams died down when she was pulled into the maw of the creature, which closed behind her.

The Initiator looked up in shock once the screams had come to an end. Up and up and up and all the way up to the face of the monstrosity before her sight. The creature was not just a big gastrea. It was truly titanic in size, overshadowing any gastrea she had ever seen It was even bigger than the trees and the buildings around itself.. Then she noticed that its red eyes looked down on her. Immediately, the cursed child knew that it was useless to try and run. Anyone, who bore witness to what just happened, could tell that. Her own power was not even close to doing any damage against this thing and the machete in her hand was in comparison to its size even less than a butterknife or even a needle.

And so she did what any normal 10-year-old child did in a situation like that.

She began to cry and soil her underwear. She was just that. A child left alone in the wilderness to die, unable to move or even stand up in the fear that pretrified her entire body and numbed every muscle.

The gastrea looked at her with unmoving red glowing eyes.

Then the lips of the giant creature parted slightly.

And then everything went black for her in an instant.

Just a little bit later, the gastrea's attention was taken by something in the distance as it began moving towards it.

* * *

_36 hours later_

Kisara Tendo was nervous. No that was not even scratching the surface of the current situation. She was downright terrified by the intense pressure in the air. And the reason was the situation she was in currently. She sat in the same meeting room as just a few weeks ago when the incident involving the Legacy of the Seven Stars took place. And like back then she had her best promotor and initiator Rentaro and Enju with her like all the others did.

Then a screen at the end of the room went on and the face of Tokyo Area's governor Seitenshi appeared. She was a 16 year old young woman with a small frame, pale skin, sky blue eyes and long white hair while being dressed in a fancy looking white dress. Despite her appearance and age, she was a capable leader that managed Tokyo Area quite well despite her position of taking care of the cursed children, which made her not that popular among other politicians. When the video feed started, everyone stood up from their chairs to show respect to her.

"Gentlemen, I thank you for coming on such short notice, but time is of the essence so I shall adress the matter immediately." Seitenshi paused for a Moment, before speaking up again. "One of Japan's 5 remaining settlements has been destroyed by a gastrea attack."

"WHAT!?"  
"Impossible. How?"  
"This can't be…"

The reactions of the individual people differed from one another, but even though some reacted violently with denial and other with fear and despair all of them were shocked to their core about this development including Kisara herself.

"That however is not all." Seitenshi stated with an unreadable calm face after she had given the civil security time to let her words sink in. "The gastrea that is presumably responsible for the destruction has begun moving towards Tokyo and will most likely arrive within the next 24 Hours." She said, dropping another bomb onto the gathered people. This time the people were silent however. "The reason why I've called you here is therefore very simple. I want all personell to defeat that gastrea before it can destroy the Tokyo."

"So it is like Aldebaran again." One of them said.

"That is incorrect." Seitenshin said. "This gastrea did not develop the ability to control other gastrea. In fact from what we have seen, it devours others."

"A gastrea that hunts others of its kind?"

"Well gastrea are still living beings. That they would eat one another is not that surprising then."

"True. No matter how you look at it they are living creatures that need to breathe and eat."

"Gentlemen." The governor's voice made the others become silent again. "We don't know why it is doing it, but the fact that it is indeed a massive gastrea is problematic. Not only that, but it is approaching Tokyo Area by taking a route that will most likely lead it close to the site of Heaven's Ladder." Everyone froze at those words.

"B-But Seitenshi-sama! That is wonderful news. If we can manage to push our way to Heaven's Ladder and fire it in the case that everything else fails, we can deal with this menace easier than with Aldebaran." One of the officers said.

He had a point though. During the battle with Aldebaran it had been impossible to use the super weapon because the gastrea simply had been on the other side of Tokyo. Firing the weapon would have meant to actually shoot through the Monoliths and that was not possible without endangering Tokyo Area.

"That might be correct however the density of gastrea in that area has significantly increased ever since the Stage V incident. Breaking through to the Ladder of Heaven won't be easy." Immediately as Seitenshi said that it was as if depression laid itself upon the room. "While the Ladder of Heaven might be effective when fired it shall be our last option to defend ourselves." Kisara really didn't like where this was going.

"What about the Military? Shouldn't they deal with this threat?" Someone asked.

"The military has already been informed and prepares for an offensive against this gastrea. However in the case that they should fail we still need to ensure that the civilians are evacuated and protected." Seitenshi said. The corporation heads understood immediately. Not that they liked it, but she was right.

The meeting ended soon afterwards with the order of all people to evacuate and ensure the safety of the people at the western border of Tokyo Area.

* * *

_24 Hours later_

Ladder to Heaven. A large weapon built in the Great Gastrea War. Originally meant to be a weapon to fight the gastrea threat, but eventually its area was overrun and the weapon was unable to be used. Still Rentaro Satomi had managed to break through and use the weapon to kill the Zodiac Gastrea Scorpion. The reason why this was important laid within the gastrea itself.

When gastrea form they first take only on the traits of one type of animal. Those Stage I gastrea later grow stronger and can incorporate multiple DNA strains of sometimes comepletely species. As such a Stage II gastrea might have the head of a shark and the wings of a duck or the front limbs of a lion and the hindlegs of an octopus. Research thus far has revealed that naturally gastrea can only grow up to Stage IV, however during the Great Gastrea War an even more horrifying threat emerged. A group of individual gastrea that were immune to the normally for gastrea lethal properties of varanium.

Those were the 11 Zodiac Gastrea that destroyed the world. Named after the constellations of the western zodiac each possessed tremendous power and was basically an unstoppable force of nature.

It was already a miracle that the giant railgun managed to actually kill the zodiac gastrea in the first place with nothing more than Rentaro Satomi's arm as a projectile.

Nonetheless, this weapon was once more target of Rentaro's group as he was the only one who had ever fired that weapon manually and with the inability to fire the railgun from far away as it had actually been intended due to a decade of no maintenance. Because of that Enju and Rentaro had been sent over there to once more fire the weapon themselves if everything failed.

They were supposed to travel there by a helicopter. But then in the distance could hear the thundering sound of explosions as they lit up the night sky far away and a sound as if from another world entirely shook the air while large amount of gastrea suddenly appeared from the undergrowth and began running into the opposite direction. This unfortunately also included several flying gastrea from which one of them crashed into the helicopter of Rentaro and Enju, making it crash down while the initiator and promotor had to jump off the falling aircraft and the gastrea simply kept flying away from the noise of the bombardement.

The two of them landed up in the branches of a tree, but the aircraft crashed further away to the ground and exploded in a large ball of fire.

"What is up with those things?" Enju asked slightly irritated at the turn of events. While picking out twigs and leaves from their hairs, Rentaro couldn't help but that admit that it was indeed strange behavior from the gastrea. Normally they would rather go towards enemies that attacked one of their own, but in this case it appeared more like they were...fleeing?

* * *

_Meanwhile_

Seitenshi and Kikunojou Tendo observed the operation unfold on the screens as missiles hit the gastrea. Again and again the massive creature was hit with very potent explosives as it was covered from head to toe with smoke and still the drones and jets kept firing at the creature in the smoke.

To be honest, Seitenshi didn't like how this fight was fought. Though she held absolutely no love for the gastrea, this was just something sad to look at. From all sides it was attacked as if it started to rain explosives and the explosions had long since drowned the startled sounds of the creature. Then the gunfire stopped and everyone. looked with anticipation to see whether their attack had killed the creature or not. Some people in the headquarters even cheered at this Point.

Seitenshi and Kikunojou were not among them. They knew it was too early for that, even though they silently hoped that this had been enough to stop the gastrea.

It wasn't enough.

From within the smoke shot suddenly several projectiles seemingly made out of light as they shot right towards the drones and aircraft, before exploding upon impact, either downright destroying them or crippling the machines to the point of no longer being able to fly and thus making them crash to the ground where they exploded. Even more importantly, the projectiles didn't shot out in a straight line. Instead they shot towards the aircraft and then made a curve to follow them like guided missiles would.

From one moment to another dozens of fighters and drones had been reduced to nothing but scrap metal. The curtain of dust that engulfed the creature had yet to settle down, but one could tell that it was moving. At this point, the head of the Tendo Family grit his teeth.

"Send message to the bomber squad immediately! They are to engage this filthy parasite at once!" The old man raged as the other workers quickly sent the orders to the soldiers. Kikunojou Tendo crossed his arms at this. "As far as it is still away from the city it should be fine to use that weapon the Shiba Company developed to destroy Aldebaran."

"Let us hope is does." Seitenshi said as her hands folded almost painfully in her lap.

"Bombers have started. ETA in 5 minutes." Someone said. Inside the Headquarters silence descended once more as a deep pit seemed to have formed in their guts.

* * *

_At the same time_

*BANG*

Another varanium bullet hit the brain of an ant-like gastrea as Rentaro and Enju continued to walk towards Heaven's Ladder. Earlier they had witnessed from the trees how many gastrea simply ran away from where the explosions had come from, knocking down trees and running over one another in the process. After only a few minutes or so the gastrea horde had passed them and they were able to climb down.

However, on their way they encountered more gastrea that fled in a panic, before seeing them when they reverted back to their usual behavior. Which meant they tried to kill them on sight. Luckily for the two of them, it were only individual gastrea or small groups of them and not like the horde of creatures that barrelled through the forest when the fight started.

"We are still pretty far away from Heaven's Ladder. We better get going." Rentaro said as Enju nodded and followed right behind him. It was however not even 3 minutes later when Enju suddenly looked up into the sky. "Enju what's wrong?"

"Nothing. Just more jets flying over our heads." Enju said. Rentaro heard nothing, but that was because his senses were not as highly developed as the rabbit model's. It was not surprising that reinforcement would be sent over. After all it was a massive gastrea.

In that moment, a massive fireball rose up into the air and a loud thundering sound rolled over the land accompanied by a strong wind and a mushroom shaped cloud, which rose up into the air. Rentaro and Enju didn't need to close their eyes tightly from the light as the explosion was still far away, but to prevent dust and other things to enter their eyes they still did so. The ground shook quite a bit at this and memories of the last great battle with Aldebaran resurfaced in their minds.

All that remained visible for them was the cloud that rose into the sky, illuminated by the fires around it.

* * *

_Meanwhile_

Cheers broke out once more in the headquarters almost loud enough to drown the head of the Tendo family's voice if he hadnot yelled.

"Get a grip you fools! It might have survived the attack! Be ready for the case that it is still alive!" He shouted as all the cheers died down and everyone tried to somehow make anything out in the smoke. Unfortunately for them, not even thermal vision would have worked given that everything was heated up by the explosion. Only after several minutes the dust finally settled and allowed everyone to look inside.

"Alright I think we have...WHAT THE HELL!?" One of the workers shouted as he stood up from his seat.

"What is it! On the screen! Now!" Kikunojou almost roared as the person quickly typed the command in and revealed something shocking to the people of Tokyo.

The gastrea was gone. Not dead. Not in pieces from the blast. Not burnt to a crisp. And not within the crater.  
It. Was. Not. There. It was as if it never had been there to begin with.

"GODDAMMIT!" Someone else exclaimed as everyone tried to find the creature they had been attacking nonstop for the last few minutes. It souldn't be so hard to be honest after all it was a massive gastrea.

"Do not panic. Find that gastrea immediately! Don't let it escape!" Kikunojou shouted as Seitenshi sighed.

"It appears it already has managed to do so." She said in a calm voice, catching the old Tendo off guard. "How is the evactuation of the civilians going?"

"Good ma'am. We managed to secure most of the civilians in the outer areas and have transports ready to depart when given command." Someone said. Seitenshi let out a sigh of relief. She was prepared for the case of failure.

"Seitenshi-sama. We are picking up strange seismic signals from the area near the Ladder of Heaven." Someone said. Upon Looking at the data, Kikunojou went pale.

"Inform Rentaro Satomi to immediately get ready to fire the weapon, NOW!" The old tendo shouted.

* * *

_With Rentaro and Enju_

Even though the bombs had been dropped, the pair of Initiator and Promotor had kept moving towards the giant railgun. As long as they didn't get any green light from the Headquarters, they would not return home. And in the next moment, the ground suddenly started to shake rather violently. Rentaro almost didn't notice the voice that came out of the walkie-talkie on his hip.

"Satomi-kun!" The voice of Kisara Tendo yelled over. "Are you at the Ladder of Heaven already?"

"Kisara, we are almost there. What's going on? Everything started shaking suddenly?"

"That isn't an earthquake Rentaro! It's the gastrea and it's Closing in to your position fast!" Kisara shouted.

Fear took a grip at Rentaro's heart at this when he and Enju tried to run towards their destination. They were almost there. Just a few more meters.

And then the ground started to rise up before them, cutting them off from their destination. Soil and trees began to rain down as something simply pushed all the earth above it aside to reach the surface once more. And as if pushing up a blanket by simply sitting up, the gastrea showed itself in all its glory as it climbed out of the underground.

Crawling on all fours, a large frog-like creature emerged its 2 pairs of red glowing eyes, which were even larger than Rentaro himself, simply opened once they were out of the ground. Rising slowly out of the ground, Rentaro felt very small on a whole new level. It might not be as tall as Scorpion which had been about a 400 meters in size, but it surely was bigger than Aldebaran had been. From up close Rentaro and Enju also noted that despite mostly looking like a frog, there were other traits also incorporated into this being.

Its skin while mostly in a dark shade of green in color was not moist and soft looking, but rather rough like the back of a crocodile. Each finger on the massive amphibian's fingers had long and sharp claws, while the rest of the feet seemed to have been covered in a hard exoskeleton not unlike that of a mole cricket. Two rows of bony spikes were visible on the flanks of the gastrea. Also another spike could be seen at the elbows and the heels of the creature. A long eel-like tail, not unlike that of a tadpole grow from the lower waist. Also there were four long feelers around the creature's mouth like those of a catfish. What Rentaro and Enju could see from their literal frog perspective was the back of the creature from which the remaining soil and vegetation slid down from as it fully emerged.

The gastrea was more than 200 meters in length and minus its tail which seemed to be about a third of its entire length about as tall as it was long, making it look rather fat and obese. However, the red glowing eyes made any thought of helplessness disappear the moment it occured. Then the creature began to lift its head and torso to actually croak loudly once from the vocal sacs on the flanks of the head. More importantly, the gastrea wore a large cloak over its back and iron wrist bands could be seen on its lower arms. The fact that it was wearing something was strange enough, but that it was actually fitting was even stranger. After all, someone actually sentient would have been needed to make that and than put it on the gastrea.

The giant amphibian looked around a little stepping sideways a few times. However what one would consider cute when looking at a normal pool frog was for this creature almost terrifying as each step it took shook the ground and meant that the massive body shifted several dozens of meters with each step, forcing Enju and Rentaro to put some distance between themselves and the gastrea. Then it turned to the Ladder of Heaven. It simply sat there and looked at the massive railgun that was supposed to kill it.

Then it jumped and landed right on top of the weapon as it groaned under the pressure the massive amphibian applied to it by simply sitting on top of it. However it seemed to slide away from its surface so it wildly tried to relocate itself on top of the weapon it was sliding down upon and its claws left deep gaping scratches in its hull. Now it was time for Rentaro to panic. The Ladder of Heaven was about as tall as the gastrea and clearly wasn't meant to be climbed by an overgrown tree frog. Eventually the frog fell down from the railgun and started to trash on the ground as it tried to stand up again.

Until now it was behaving like a normal frog to be honest, if one took away the size, the abdnormal traits and of course the fact that it apparently wearing clothes.

Still two still had to find a way up there. As long as they could get up there, redirect the railgun to the gastrea and load it, they could kill it. However that was easier said than done with the target being right at the gun itself. Rolling onto its feet again the bull frog-like gastrea blinked as it stood still for a moment. Then it tried jumping up on the back of the Ladder of Heaven.

It was this stupid act that ruined everything. Several of the wires holding he weapon in position without falling over simply snapped under the sudden weight of thousands of tons of amphibian muscles and bone, causing the others to snap as well and the railgun to crash to the ground under its own weight. Meanwhile the gastrea didn't seem to mind that at all as it simply croaked like a normal frog would from the top of the now destroyed weapon.

Immediately, everyone felt the feeling of despair rolling over their minds. Their plan to use the ladder of heaven was now impossible. Their efforts to destroy the gastrea had been fruitless and had not even once wounded the creature before their eyes. Then the creature turned its body around on the super weapon and began to stare at something in the distance.

A chill ran down Rentaro's spine as he followed the eyes of the large amphibian to gaze upon something familiar. The skyline of the Tokyo Area which even now was still lit with many Lights. The frog-like gastrea croaked again as it stared at the settlement.

'_Oh no!_' He thought as he knew that he had to do something, but there was little he could do. He only had his cybernetic prothesises and his gun and before him stood something that looked like it ate skyscrapers for breakfast.

"Satomi-kun are you still alive? Satomi!" A worried Kisara tore him out of his trance.

"Enju and I are fine, but the Ladder of Heaven got destroyed!"

"Don't worry about that! Get the hell out of there!"

"No! That Thing has its eyes set on Tokyo! If we don't stop it here Tokyo will be done for!"

"You CAN'T stop that giant toad! Now get out of there!" Kisara shouted over as Rentaro grit his teeth. They had been so close. So close to just kill it, but now it was impossible. The gastrea leapt down from the super weapon, making the ground shake under its weight upon impact before turning its eyes back to Tokyo behind the monoliths.

"Hiyah!" In that moment Enjuu jumped forward and launched a kick against the gastrea's leg. But before even making contact with it, the attack bounced off on some sort of invisible barrier and sent Enju crashing to the ground. The frog however seemed to have noticed that as it turned around, its red eyes fixated on Enju, who laid on the ground, wincing in pain. Seeing that Rentaro instinctively opened fire on the gastrea's eyes in hopes that it would blind it for just a moment, but once again the attacks didn't even reach the creature. '_What the- Impossible! Is that a repulsive shield like the one of Kagetane? But how could that be?_' He thought as true terror etched itself on his face.

The frog opened its mouth and three tongues sliped out with vile looking tendrils like hooks growing irregulary along their lengths. But before shooting out, another explosion hit its head,causing Enju and Rentaro to be blown backwards by the blast as the boy hit his back against a tree and Enju fell to the ground with a groan. The gastrea looked up to see several aircraft ready to fire. The tongues shot out and grabbed a trio of them, before crushing them and swallowing them in less than a second. The other vessels opened fire once more, but Rentaro could see how not a single missible made it past its shield.

One chopper broke out of the formation and flew lower to open the door and reveal the initiator/promotor sibling duo Yuzuki and Tamaki Katagiri, who had fought with Rentaro and Enju during the Aldebaran incident.

"Over here quick!" Tamaki shouted as he reached out with his hand. Rentaro hated to just leave, but he couldn't allow Enju to suffer anymore as he scooped her up bridal style and ran to the chopper. Once there he was pulled inside by Tamaki and the aircraft quickly took off. From the window, Rentaro watched as the giant frog was showered in more missiles, but lashed out with its tongues again, destroying the attackers by whipping them around wildly.

"Shit man. What the fuck is going on with that thing!" Tamaki cursed as he too looked at the giant amphibian as it was attacked with bombs once more, making it disappear from the view due to the smoke and dust. He then turned to Rentaro. "Hey you okay man? You're bleeding." Tamaki said. In that moment Rentaro put his hand on the back of his head and felt a familiar stinging, warm and wet sensation as blood was stuck to his fingers.

"I'm fine. We need to get Enju into a hospital to treat her." Rentaro said. Tamaki said nothing, but nodded while his sister looked at the model rabbit.

At the same time the gastrea began moving again after another failed attack. This time however it began pushing its body up with its hindlegs standing like a dinosaur there with its clawed hands now no longer on the ground as it seemed to glare daggers at the flying Aircraft. It let out a screeching sound before once more several projectiles made out of light appeared around its body and shot forward, destroying any aircraft in its sight, which luckily excluded the one Rentaro and Tamaki had fled in.

With the annoying air support out of the way like buzzing flies the amphibian retracted its tongues back inside and looked at the city behind monoliths once more. Growling it then began to stretch its arms towards the city. Suddenly electricity began to spark from all over its body as it branched outwards in large archs, striking the ground and trees around it, setting the later on fire. Opening its mouth widely and letting out another otherworldly roar, the lightning concentrated to one spot in front of the gastrea and shot forward.

The sudden change of brightness made the people turn away as well as the pilot of the chopper as he went off course but still airborne. It still shook the aircraft however.

"What the hell!" Rentaro cursed as he looked outside and stopped once more in shock. Whatever it was the gastrea had done, it had hit one of the monoliths right in the middle and now had left a large scar in the giant collumn of varanium. He was not the only one gaping at the destruction. Everyone who could see the monolith that had been hit either from outside or on a screen had their eyes on it. At the same moment the electricity around the giant gastrea built up again. In that moment thousands of voices cried out to be spared, but the gastrea didn't listen and didn't care as it fired again.

Each monolith was 1.618 kilometers in height and 1 kilometer in width and purely made out of varanium. They were the things that kept the gastrea out. And now for the first time since the attack of Aldebaran the people of the Tokyo Area bore witness how one of them was destroyed. The lightning attack shot right through the monolith and then the cracks started to spread all over the structure. It was now so unstable that the gravity of the Earth did the rest, causing it to collapse under its own weight.

From all over Tokyo people found their hopes crushed alongside the monolith. Thousands screamed in pain and ran away in Panic to put as much distance between themselves and the destroyed monolith as possible, not even carrying if they were literally running over other people.

From far away the gastrea looked at its work and found it not enough. This time it turned to another monolith next to it and let out another roar. This time three massive fireballs sailed through the night sky and hit the base of the monolith, before exploding. Under the white hot flames the varanium began to melt at the base and caused the entire structure to become unstable. The weight of the staked up varanium was pulled down towards the ground and thus everythin that was staked up the lower now melted blocks collapsed, which caused a domino effect, which resulted in the almost complete collapse of the monolith.

Then the frog-like gastrea dropped on all fours again and sat there slightly exhausted, while in the distance it could hear the screams of Panic and the sounds of the incoming gastrea.

* * *

While some people cried out in shock, others screamed in pure terror. Others laughed hysterically unable to accept the truth. Some cried silently as if they didn't even notice that tears were running down their face. And only few were so shocked that they were silent and did nothing else.

One such person was Seitenshi as she stood up from her seat, catching the attention of everyone around her in the headquarters.

"Everyone. We have lost the battle. I want you to monitor and control the evacuation of the civilians and then flee yourselves." She said.

"B-But Seitenshi-sama-"

"Don't." Seitenshi said, making the person shut up immediately. "If Tokyo Area is to fall tonight, I will no longer be its governor. No, I refuse to leave before the people were not evacuated!" She stated with a firm tone that left no room for arguments.

*BAM*

In the next moment, Kikunojou hit her on the back of her head, knocking her out. The old Tendo head picked up the governor and put her back on her chair.

"Get some of the guards to carry her on a transport for evacuation. Seitenshi is not allowed to die. I myself shall stay here and fight the gastrea. As a veteran in the Great Gastrea War I still have a score to settle with them. Now go!" He shouted. Some of the workers left, while some insisited on staying and helping with monitoring the evacuation from the headquarters like Seitenshi had requested them to do. The old man couldn't help but make a sound of disgust at their determination, but he was going to respect it. At least this time.

* * *

_Later_

The chopper landed near of one of the ships that would carry the civilians away to the closest settlement when Rentaro held Enju tightly in his arms to get her to the closest doctor. The Katagiri siblings meanwhile took off again to assist the others to keep the gastea out of the Tokyo Area now that not one but two monoliths were just destroyed and thus the magnetic barrier clearly weakened.

"Rentaro over here!" The voice of Kisara Tendo made the young man turn around as she was with Tina Sprout. "Come this way!" She said as she guided Rentaro to one of the ships and boarded it. Afterwards they ran acorss the halls before entering the room of a certain familiar doctor.

"Yo." Sumire Muroto greeted them as she let Rentaro place Enju on a table for her to examine the unconscious Initiator. Afterwards they went out of the room. Rentaro walked up and down and neither Kisara nor Tina could find any words to calm him down. So instead Kisara hugged the taller boy, who returned the gesture.

"I failed…" Rentaro as he cried bitter tears. "And Enju got hurt because of that..." He managed to choke out these words as he held Kisara tightly against him.

'_There was nothing you could have done._' Kisara would have said, but unfortunately for her Rentaro was not thinking rationally in this moment and it would only make his guilt fester deeper into his soul. After what felt like an eternity, Sumire opened the door and shot the two a cat-like grin.

"My, my. Little Rentaro is growing up." She said, making Kisara's face lit up crimson while Rentaro let go of her and walked right up to the doctor.

"How is she?" He asked completely ignorant to the teasing remark of Kisara's condition, which was pretty close to a mental breakdown from embarrassment.

"She will make it. Just a few bruises and broken bones. Nothing her healing factor can't fix." Sumire told her as she let Rentaro inside. On the table Enju breathed calm breaths in her sleep. Not a single sign of pain was visible. Finally a wave of relief washed over the 3 other members of the Tendo Civil Security Corporation.

"I'll be honest with you. That Beelzebufo is quite interesting. I wouldn't mind if once it gets killed someone lets me dissect it." The doctor said.

"Beelzebufo?" Rentaro asked.

"It's the name of a long extinct species of amphibians from Madagaskar from the Cretacious Period. The Name means Devil Toad by the way. A fitting name for a frog-like gastrea that just destroyed 2 settlements, don't you think?" Sumire said. As if on cue, the ship's horn started blaring and the speakers came to life.

"TO ALL PASSENGERS. WE HAVE REACHED MAXIMUM CAPACITY OF PERSONS. WE CAN NO LONGER TAKE ANYMORE PEOPLE WITH US. NOW ACCORDING TO THE EVACUATION PLAN WE WILL NOW TAKE COURSE TO THE CLOSEST HARBOUR. PLEASE STAY CALM AND IN YOUR ROOMS. WE WILL KEEP YOU UPDATED ON THE SITUATION." The voice said through the speakers.

"What!" Rentaro jumped to his feet at this and ran to the closest window as he saw how the ship started to leave the port, where many people still desperately tried to get on board of one of the ships. In the distance, Rentaro could make out the shadows of flying gastrea heading towards Tokyo. Before he could do anything else however, Kisara had grabbed his shoulder and gave him a determined look to stay put.

He wanted to argue that he should stay behind and defend those people. That they were responsible for the civil security in Tokyo and with that for the lives of the people. He wanted to, but Kisara's look was not just stern, but also pleading. Pleading him to not throw away his life. In silence they walked back to the doctor, who fished out a box of cigarettes from her pocket. She didn't lit one however as smoking wasn't allowed.

"It will be quite a job to take down that giant thing as well as those zodiac gastrea, now that the Ladder of Heaven is gone. We don't know much about it, but it seems to be a Stage IV Gastrea. Though its destructive capabilities probably are more than enough reason to call it a Pseudo Stage V." The doctor said. "Rentaro, you and Enju were the only ones that saw it up close. How about you tell me a bit about it?" Rentaro Satomi sighed as he sat down and looked at the doctor.

"What do you want to know?" He said, while Sumire smiled.

* * *

_Meanwhile_

Far away from all the mayhem in Tokyo were the last ferries took the survivors onboard and fled from the destruction, Kagetane Hiruko looked with his daughter Kohina from the roof of one such ships at the burning city of Tokyo. Everything was being destroyed as the cries of gastrea could be heard like the screams of banshees in the wind. Then with a binocular he managed to find a familiar, massive and apparently magical frog-like gastrea as it stood up and began to devour everything around it be it smaller gastrea or ferociously fighting security personell like the head of the Tendo Family.

"What a shame. I really wished I could have stayed longer to witness everything from up close. That of course includes your useless death as well Kikunojou Tendo." He said as he sat down on the roof beside his daughter, who was Standing, with his hands forming a bridge.

"Papa, if Enju is among the survivors can I go to kill her?" Kohina asked innocently with bright red eyes.

"No my daughter. Enju is apparently still recovering from her fight with that giant gastrea… Beelzebufo as they have called it now." Kagetane said, rejecting his daughter's desire to kill the model rabbit enforcer. To be honest, he was very interested in that gastrea himself as it was so different from any other gastrea including the zodiac gastrea. Perhaps a mutation? Or a whole new strain of the virus? It didn't explain why it could use electricity and fire to such an extend or in such an unnatural way to begin with, but gastrea always tended to evolve in mysterious ways like Pleiades and Aldebaran did.

"I hate you Papa." Kohina said pouting, but her father simply ruffled her hair. Then he jumped to his feet. "Now then, the curtain has fallen. The peace has been shattered and chaos now reigns supreme. Now then let us enjoy this great play that is to unfold before us with a new actor on the stage, a herald of the new age." He said as he spread his arms in a dramatic pose. It was as if all the suffering and chaos was a lare orchesta and he perhaps had a chance to play in it with this amphibian being one of the conductors.

The ships simply silently drove out of the broken protective ring that the monoliths were around Tokyo Bay as they set sails to the closest safe place.

* * *

Name: Beelzebufo (Gastrea Name given by Sumire Muroto, original Player name is unknown)

Epithet: Toad (by Kisara Tendo), Herald of a New Age (by Kagetane Hiruko), Pseudo Stage V (by Sumire Muroto)

Race: Gastrea, formerly: Unknown amphibian race

Gender: Unknown

Biography: Very little is known about this individual due to their status as a gastrea. Other than their magic capabilities and the amphibian nature of their race, nothing can be found out about this being by simply observing them. However, their high magical and physical resistances plus the variety of high tier spells it can use indicate, that this creature most likely had been a Level 100 YGGDRASIL Player or NPC specialized in casting offensive magic.

Apparently, they had been a person, that had pretty much accepted the end of the game as they carried no strong gear or items with them and thus were very unlucky to end in this world. Most likely they sold most of their items in their inventory, leaving only very few items with them. Had they kept their items, they might have been able to make up for their lack of a Disease Immunity or Mind-affecting Immunity and avoid becoming a mindless killing machine.

The growth from a Stage I to a Stage IV has also caused the DNA of other organisms to be incorporated into Beelzebufo such as that of crocodiles, catfishes, mole crickets and presumably squids. Surprisingly Beelzebufo is not acting hostile towards the items they had worn before the mutation which have simply enlargened with the individual as they were created by the means of YGGDRASIL, meaning that they simply change their size to fit whoever wears them, while also remembering to use spells depending on the combat situation. It can be theorized that despite loss of the former personality, Beelzebufo still has memories of their former life.

* * *

**And the morale of the story is, wash your hands after petting your dog or else you turn into some sort of human-eating violent animal that only exists for the sake of killing humans. So basically you get super rabies.**

**Thank you for reading this chapter. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did when writing it. Though now I'm surprised that it has become so much. When I got the ground concept done, it was just 4k words. Now we are here.**

**The concept of it invaded my mind like a Dark Souls phantom when I couldn't help, but notice that there was such a miniscule amount of Black Bullet fanfictions, which is quite surprising given that the anime adaptation from 2014 was actually really good and the light novel has been on hiatus for almost 6 years now. I have not read the light novel myself, but I'm sure that this series actually holds a lot of potential. That's probably the only other analogy it shares to a Dark Souls phantom. They keep pestering me until I give them attention they want.**

**(By the way, can we have a fanfiction of Accelerator stumbling into that universe with Last Order just so we can make that guy Takuto Yasuwaki and whoever decided to blow up those cursed children in the outer area pay by a real villain or in general someone who picks on a defenseless young child like those guys that LITERALLY KICKED A BLIND STARVED LITTLE GIRL WHO WAS BEGGING FOR MONEY TO THE GROUND AND KEPT KICKING.)**

**I personally never understood why the Ladder of Heaven was never used again after the Scorpion incident. Seriously, if that weapon was meant to kill gastrea in the first place, it would be weird to not use it at all whenever there is some huge undefeatable by normal means gastrea showing up?**

**So how do I explain how this frog did turn into humongous terminator daddy? (Yes, I watch the If the Emperor had a Text-To-Speech Device webseries, because its at least entertaining)**

**Similiar to the Blacklight Virus in the Prototype series and other viruses in fictional works, the Gastrea Virus overwrites the DNA of those infected almost instantly and spreads quickly through the entire body. I doubt that amputation is a regulary working method to prevent the mutation into a gastrea from happening once infected as the virus enters the bloodstream and uses it like a german highway, meaning usually no speed limits but 130km/h are appropriate as a minimum speed, though there was such a case mentioned. Not to Mention that the infected loses their mind and becomes quite literally a mindless animal once mutated.**

**For these reasons, it would be unwise to enter this world without attributes such as Mind-affecting Immunity and most importantly Disease Immunity, making it a world more suitable for undead and golems such as Momonga and CZ Delta. Or at least one should have spells or items that can help one with that as otherwise the virus will simply turn one into another gastrea that is physically much stronger than most others, due to skills and spells which didn't actually get lost automatically after the mutation. **

**This was also the case with Beelzebufo as they were an already very powerful being under the physical aspect (Remember Ainz when he was punching the ground when he found out about Shalltear being affected by a World Item? Show me a normal person that can do that) with supernatural attributes, including the ability to use magic and all passive abilities such as resistances against low level spells and attacks, which basically would negate almost anything that the Black Bullet universe can offer with perhaps the Ladder of Heaven as an exception.**

**Note here that the Ladder of Heaven is using a 800mm projectile and accelerates it to almost light speed and while I'm not good at physics, but if power is mass multiplicated with acceleration I think it must have quite a lot of power behind it.**

**However that was not all to Beelzebufo. Due to their choice of an amphibious race, they also were already in the disadvantage when taking the Gastrea Virus into account as amphibians use their skin as a respiration surface and thus make them more susceptible for infections.**

**With other words, it didn't matter whether they were a Level 1 player or Level 100. Because they lacked any countermeassures against the virus to prevent an infection or to cure oneself once infected or had any method to learn about its existence in the first place, Beelzebufo was already doomed from the very moment of being brought into this world as part of an amphibian race outside of the monoliths. And that is a fate that could have befallen any other Level 100 individual without those traits, including the Floor Guardians of Nazarick that are not undead or golems or any other race that are unaffected by disseases.**

**And to all of you who might now think that I gave them too much of convenient abilities, you are not entirely wrong with that, however there was a second reason why I chose to use an amphibian race here and it is not because is doing that in the first place, which I can understand as the only amphibians in Overlord are one race of demihumans from the New World, the toadmen, and a kind of monster from Hellheim that lived in the swamps around Nazarick, the tuveg. I could perhaps over the Slaadi (singular Slaad) as a race from D&D, but since it isn't confirmed I'll just keep it with unknown amphibian race.**

**The old Greek adjective amphibios means basically dua life and refers to the life cycle with a fish like larval stage and a terrestrial adult in most cases (not counting axolotl and olms), that still mostly lives in the water. As such amphibians mark the evolution of vertebrates to colonize the land and makes them as such the prior state of reptiles, which later became independent of bodies of water and air moisture by developing scales. So basically in general amphibians are lacking when it comes to natural weapons such as scales, claws and in most cases teeth. Another trait that some modern amphibians have are great regenerative abilities to heal even amputated limbs.**

**So since the Gastrea Virus alone bestows on every gastrea enhanced strength speed and durability and in general boosts their abilities quite a lot, it would be pretty difficult to actually kill them even with weapons that would be able to bypass the passive immunity against physical attacks as it most likely can regenerate even lost limbs and organs, if one was even to come as close as to injure them in the first place. After all, they still have their magical powers and most of their physical attributes were amplified by the virus induced mutations. **

**...So basically they actually be now something akin to raid boss. Never really thought about it like that. Then again the original concept also had the wings of a pterodactly like Otachi from Pacific Rim did, but I didn't want to give every OC I make wings and tails. You could say I want to "stay grounded". (insert drum) Eh? No one? Wow... tough crowd today, right?**

**So yeah, another world BITES ZA DUSTO! Oh right, Kira Yoshikage's VA in the game Eyes of Heaven is also the one who spoke Kagetane Hiruko. That would explain how he managed to survive his fight with Satomi back then during then Scorpion incident. He simply blasted himself back in time by probably using Kohina and then going into hiding with her. Looks like luck has once more sided with Kagetane Hiruko.**

**Now it's your time to shine again. Please write your opinions, suggestions and questions into the reviews or send me a PM.**

**Well then, I hope to see you next time and wish you a nice day ;)**


	10. Chapter IX: Dawn of the Pleistocene

Chapter IX: Dawn of the Pleistocene (Sousei no Taiga)

* * *

The Pleistocene was the geological epoch, which lasted from about 2.588 million years to about 11700 years ago. As the lower epoch of the Quaternary, it was more defined by the climate changes in that time, rather than geological changes, which was a first in the history of stratigraphy. Before the Quaternary even began several events caused the Earth's climate to cool down. India collided with South Asia, creating the Himalaya and through the erosion of it, feldspar was weathered, reducing the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The circular stream around Antarctica was formed with the opening of the Drake Passage, causing the southern continent to freeze over 40 million years ago. And with the closure of the Panama Passage, the entire global flux conditions in the planet's oceans changed drastically.

What most people would later simply remember as the Ice Age was a series of cold and warm phases in the Earth's history with large differences of the surface temperature during these alternating times. Animals and plants had to adapt over and over again to these temperatures, allowing palaeotologists to actually determine what kind of climate these creatures lived in by simply looking at the fossil association of different organisms.  
For example, while in Europe some species like the cave bear _Ursus spelaeus_ lived in both warm and cold times, hippopotami were only found during the warmer times and wooly rhinoceroses and musk oxes during colder periods.

During this time another mammal evolved that perhaps was one of the most famous beings that walked the earth during that time, _Homo neanderthalensis_. Another kind of hominid, that evolved before _Homo sapiens_, but eventually went extinct about 30000 years ago, while the modern humans thrived.

But every change made in the past would have consequences for the future and as such endanger it if anything drastically changed.

* * *

Taiga and his wolf named Wolf were stalking through the forest alongside other hunters looking for deer to hunt.

Taiga and 6 of his fellow students had originally finished their anthropology seminar and went on a graduation trip to Australia to find topics for their graduation theses. By doing so they wanted to use aboriginal lifestyle and cave paintings as examples. However, upon discovering a mysterious cave and a prehistoric cave painting within the group of 7 modern day humans found themselves transported apparently into the early Pleistocene.

Given the creatures prowling in these lands like wooly mammoths, wolves, _Chalicotherium_ and the Irish Elk _Megaloceros,_ they had apparently landed somewhere on Eurasia as there had been no mammoths, wolves or irish elks on the Australian continent at all to begin with. Since their arrival, things have gone up and down for the 7 of them, but they managed to survive. Though it hardly would have been possible without them being accepted into a tribe of early members of _Homo sapiens_. While the more european looking neanderthals had been hostile ever since the first encounter, the early men with clearly african roots had accepted them after some convincing.

While stalking through the undergrowth suddenly Wolf began to growl.

"What's wrong?" Taiga said quietly as he and the hunters crept forward. Suddenly the scent of blood filled their noses and they couldn't help but be on edge. After all no one could tell for sure what had been going on. Slowly they approached a Clearing and saw something very unexpected.

Out in the open was a dead _Smilodon_, while a few more dead hyenas littered the ground. The saber-toothed feline laid on the ground with a large chunk of its flesh missing out of its flank, exposing white ribs to the sunlight. It was as if something had just taken a bite out of the large predator and left it on the forest floor to rot after killing a bunch of carrion eaters that tried to claim this for themselves.

While the early men cautiously approached the dead bodies, Taiga felt unease creep up his back.

The saber-toothed tiger was pretty much an apex predator in this forest, next to crocodiles, bears and wolves.

So why was this carcass here? Why would any predator leave their hunted down prey lying around like that without any sort of care? Even something like a wolverine would rather drag the carcass somewhere as rations for the winter, but this was just left here to rot. Or perhaps the predator was still close and used this lure in prey. Immediately he looked around, but nothing was there except him and his hunting party. Wolf had also stopped growling and Taiga trusted the judgement of the one with the far more sensitive nose.

After a while, the hunting party resumed their hunt, though a small group of them split from the others to get the dead creatures back to their camp. Whether it was a deer, wolf or _Smilodon_, meat was still meat and as long nothing spoke against consuming it like it being rotten it was fine to take it. Also its skin and bones could be used otherwise. While carrying the corpses away, something watched the hunters from above with careful and calculating eyes, before moving. All that the people could have heard was the shaking of leaves in the wind.

* * *

Some time later, the group of hunters managed to spot a small herd of deer. Behind a treeline the early humans cowered behind the foliage.

That was when suddenly a horde of neanderthals charged right at them with primal battlecries. The deer were startled for a moment, but the amount of spears biting into their flesh in that moment of initial shock was more than enough to kill at least 2 of them and heavily injure a few others. The herd quickly ran away, narrowly dodging the early human hunters, but those too slow or too heavily injured were killed quite fast afterwards.

Taiga and the other men didn't move. A confrontation with them right now was not a good idea. Even though they were hunting themselves for food, a fight to the death with the invading neanderthals would only cost them a lot of strength and unnecessarily endanger their lives.

***GGGRRRRRROOOOOOOOAAAAAARRRRRRR!***

A loud roar in the distance unlike anything the former college student had ever heard accompanied with the sound of startled bird cries as they flew up high into the air, rushed over the forest from behind him and his companions and immediately the neanderthals panicked. Quickly gathering their belongings and prey they dashed off into the same direction they came from, before they vanished in the undergrowth. When their loud shouts faded away Taiga and the other hunters finally stood up from their hiding Position.

However, it was more than an alien situation. The wolf next to Taiga, who had waited patiently and not made a single Sound during the neanderthals' hunt, now laid his ears flat against his skull and looked frightened at the forest. The other hunters also shuddered in fear and spoke to one another, speculating what this roar was. Still, despite being shaken quite a bit from this, the Group decided to change directions and look somewhere else for game to hunt. Taiga was also not quite unaffected by this. His mind raced as he tried to make sense what that was.

It couldn't have been a bear, sabertooth tiger or wolf, but it also couldn't have been a _Chalicotherium_ or wooly rhinoceros. The only animal his mind could come up with producing a sound that loud from clearly such a distance was a mammoth, but the roar just now was not the sound of an elephant at all.

So the question was if not even the biggest animal of this pleistocene land known to him made that sound, what did?

* * *

The hunters of the neanderthals ran through the forest until they simply couldn't run anymore. In the pursuit of their game, they had to venture further away. However, they knew exactly when it was time to leave. The moment they heard that terrible sound, memories of a few days in the past returned. Their party had been larger back then.

But one night something came to their camp.

A beast unlike any other they had seen. A monster that devoured them with ferocious hunger. Claws like spears and teeth like daggers tore their numbers apart. They tried fighting back, throwing spears, but the creature had skin harder than the shell of a tortoise. In the end, it only enraged the beast even more, returning the favor by attacking with more vigor and resuming its killing spree with much more efficiency.

The hunters had become the prey and in this realization they ran into the night. Heavy foodsteps followed them, knocking trees over as if they were nothing and roaring in anger as it chased after them. Only after what felt like an eternity of running, the cries of the creature went silent and the hunters stopped. Finally out of the danger zone, they rested, but there was no relief for them. A lot of good men died back then and there. And they could do nothing but run and hide. Not to mention that they were out in the wilderness without a camp and most likely surrounded by predators.

2 other hunters died that night from a pack of hyenas attacking them as they were tired and barely had any strength left in them. With the sunrise, the neanderthals saw the full extent of the damage done.

Now they wandered back to their home, a cave, which had been their camp for a while now.

That was when they stopped in shock. Within the darkness of the cave, a face stared back at them. A human face looked back at them with a small smile on its face, while the eyes looked completely expressionless. Immediately the neanderthals pointed their spears at the man in the cave, demanding him to come out and leave.

Then the man's eye brows narrowed and his lips pulled back into a snarl revealing large fangs instead of normal teeth. Immediately the neanderthals pulled back, one even stumbling over the deer they had put down. Then the man stepped into the light and the hunters became painfully aware of their misjudgement. The man may had the face of a man, but the body was that of a serpent. Scales and claw like nails on the fingers were visible as the naga towered over the primitive hunters. A long forked tongue escaped the lips as if smelling the fear. The reptilian eyes locking onto the primates.

With an outcry the neanderthals charged at the man-snake, their spears gripped tightly in their hands. In the next moment however one of them widened his eyes as something had latched onto his neck. Looking down he saw the naga biting down on it, before tearin its head away and in the process tearing the entire side of his own neck open as blood exploded from the severed veins.

Another hunter charged at the being, but almost too fast for them to see the naga turned around in the air, before smacking the man off the cliff with a strike of its tail. With a loud hissing snarl the naga threw itself into the fight again.

* * *

PROCESSING...

SPECIMEN ENGAGED GROUP OF _HOMO NEANDERTHALENSIS _IN COMBAT...

RESULT... INDIGENOUS HOMINIDS WIPED OUT... SPECIMEN SUFFERED ONLY MINOR INJURIES...

CONCLUSION... SPECIMEN IS STILL CAPABLE OF IMPROVEMENT IN COMBAT...

RESUMING OBSERVATION...

* * *

_Later_

Water holes during the Pleistocene were not exactly the best spots to go hunting, however right now the hunters of the tribe had no choice but to go there. While it was true that many animals would migrate and gather there, the bodies of water were nonetheless dangerous for those that approached them without caution.

What some people didn't knew was that during the warmer phases of that time, Europe was not just home to cave bears and lions, but also crocodiles and hippopotami. Even today, these collossal herbivores are very aggressive and kill more people in a year than for example the great white shark. So it was either a massive herbivore with large tusk-like teeth and the weight of a car that crushed you to death or an ambush predator, that evolved even before the dinosaurs walked the earth. In both cases, one was at the wrong place at the wrong time.

However, that was a risk they had to take. The tribe needed food and hunting was the only option. As Taiga and the rest of the primitive men looked down at the water hole, they saw first hand how one of the deers was suddenly grabbed by a crocodile and dragged into the water. Other animals were also still around the body of water. However, the hunters needed a plan. If they just ran at them and threw their spears, the possibility of everything erupting in a panic hat might as well get themselves killed was high.

So they split up their forces. One group would spook the herd and cause a panic to make them run into their direction. For the case that the herd would try to run away in another direction, Wolf would jump out and bring them to the hunters, which then would attack themselves. Taiga just hoped that they could get the game back home before night fell.

The group agreed to the plan and began to spread out, using the bushes and trees as cover. Everything was ready. And all were in their position. Everyone just waited one last moment, which felt like the silence before a storm.

And then the hunt began.

The ambushers came out of their cover, screaming and shouting as they ran at the deer. A few even threw their spears to add more effect to it. It did work. The instinct to flee in the deer did kick in and the herd began running towards them. Taiga saw how the group would try to take a turn and thus miss them and so he sent out Wolf. The canine quickly crossed the distance and began to herd the herbivores towards the hunters that now revealed themselves as they threw their spears. With shrieks of terror the prey was wounded and fell either dead or injured to the ground as the rest did run away, leaving the water hole. The hunters quickly finished off those that survived the attack, sparing them from the suffering. At the end there was now a lot of game hunted down as the men rose their spears high into the air and let out a shout of victory.

Afterwards, the hunts immediately began to grab their things and the hunted down deer to get back home.

It was then that Taiga noticed something amiss. Wolf was not back yet.

"Wolf! Wolf!" The former student said as he tried calling his tamed pet. His fellow hunters looked at him but only, the female hunter Taiga had saved and that had introduced him to the tribe approached him and asked what was wrong. Once Taiga told her about it, she was concerned though she had no idea how to tackle this problem. Could it be that the feral instincts of the wolf now had taken over. Was domesticating wolves that much more difficult than what Taiga had done so far. **(AN: It is. It is very difficult to domesticate animals. If it was as easy as in that manga, mankind would have domesticated everything on the planet by now.)**

*WHIMPER!*

A high pitched whimper made the young man's head snap towards the treeline were a wounded wolf was limping towards him. Blood stick to its fur on the side...

*SPLATTER*

And then out of the forest a large axe had been thrown. It's blade embedded itself in the skull and killed the domesticated wolf instantly. Taiga's blood ran cold as he watched how someone had just killed the wolf he had raised since the neanderthals had killed its parents.

*FWISH*

"GUAAHH!"

The sound of an arrow missing his head and hitting someone who screamed in pain, made Taiga snap out of it and turn around. One of the hunters now had an arrow sticking out of his leg as th projectile had easily smashed through it, leaving on the opposite side to the one it had entered the now useless limb. The hunters shouted orders as some dropped the dead deer to take up spears. Taiga quickly got back to them as luckily none of the arrows shooting from behind him hit him. Unfortunately the same couldn't be said about several hunters that just found themselves hit by the arrows. A few of them tried throwing spears at the trees, but the difference in range made the difference here.

""Run! Retreat!" Taiga shouted as he realized that, shooting Wolf's corpse a last look before he and the others started to retreat. Once they were out of range they kept retreating with their wounded and prey, while also leaving behind the dead bodies of hunters and prey. Once they noticed that they were out of range, they kept retreating into the woods until they couldn't see the water hole anymore. The groans and whimpers of men filled the air as many had been hurt. As for Taiga he wanted to get back and avenge the fallen against those that had ambushed them, but he knew that he couldn't do that. They had to get back as soon as possible and that was not that easy with all the wounded now. Helping the others as best as he could, he and the hunting party went back home.

On the clearing meanwhile several figures emerged from the undergrowth. But none of them were humans or neanderthals. They were not even hominids or mammals to begin with. What came out of the forest was a group of humanoid reptilians. Each individual wore loin clothes and was armed with primitive weapons like spears and bows. Also the individuals just bore individual traits, but also resembled different kinds of reptiles. Some looked more like crocodiles, others more like iguanas and some even like snakes, when snakes would have human-like arms and legs that was.

Approaching the dead bodies the reptiles began to dig into some of them immediately. As such multiple dead human hunters were simply devoured on the spot, before the rest was carried back to wherever they had their base. One of those that resembled a snake hissed at a crocodile like one before pointing at the traces of blood the humans had left when they had fled. A sound akin to a laughter erupted from the crocodilian reptile as it and the others retreated.

The sun was already setting.

* * *

HUNTING PARTY HAS ENGAGED HUMAN HUNTERS DURING AMBUSH HUNT

COMMENT: IRONIC...

CONCLUSION: CAPABLE OF SETTING TRAPS FOR OTHER SENTIENT BEINGS... WILL BE IMPORTANT IN COMBAT WITH OTHER DEMI-HUMAN RACES SUCH AS HARPIES...

...

ABERANT HUMAN DETECTED...

...

FURTHER INVESTIGATION NEEDED...

* * *

_Later_

Taiga and his group of hunters were moving back home. Many of the injured groaned in pain as they were carried back. They were almost there and had hunted quite some meat. However, they also just lost a lot of people.

Including their wolf, which saddened Taiga a lot.

Then something hit the noses of the group. The stench of death.

Immediately, the entire group tensed up, remembering the dead _Smilodon_ they had seen this morning. Also this time the group heard the sound of flesh being torn apart. Quietly Taiga and a few others including Tiari crept forward. They didn't like this one bit. They were already close to their home and now this? This couldn't mean anything good. And so the scouts peered through the undergrowth until they saw it.

"R-Ren?" Taiga stammered as his face twisted itself into a grimace of horror. Ren had been a fellow student of Taiga that got transported back in time with the other 5. However, what Taiga knew was that Ren was the one that had the most problems with this change. He still clung to the modern world and his beliefs of that time, including that killing was a taboo, despite being almost killed for no reason by the neanderthals.

But never would Taiga have wished Ren to die here and get eaten by some predator. He was his friend after all.

"Dammit..." Taiga whispered to himself, before his gaze fell onto the creature that fed from his friend's corpse. It was not what he had expected. He knew that there were some strange animals roaming the land and dangerous predators of that time were also not exactly a rarity. However, the animal that fed of Ren's innards right now was unlike anything he had ever seen.

It was a horse. Or at least it looked a lot like one. It had four long legs, hooves, a mane of flowing hair and a hairy tail. It had a long neck and head and a pair of pointy ears. So yeah, it was indeed a horse that was currently tearing through the organs of the dead Ren. This made absolutely no sense at all in Taiga's brain. While some animals one would call herbivores were actually omnivores like boars and pigs, horses were clearly not on the list such animals. No, he had never heard of something such as a carnivorous horse in his entire life.

Then the horse lifted its head and looked right at the hunters. Immediately all the blood in their veins froze under the gaze of the equine, while blood dripped from ist mouth unto the forest floor. Horses had eyes twice the size of humans, however only about half as good sight as a human. Normally as animals that fled from predators, horses would also rely on their other senses such as smelling and hearing to spot enemies before they were close to them.

Taiga's breathing accelerated in volume and frequency, giving his Position away to the equine predator as it snorted. His heart beat became faster and louder as well.

*NIIIIEEEGGGGNNNN*

Finally, the horse made all the tension explode as it let out a shrill sound and dashed towards Taiga with the intention to devour him as well. He and the other hunters didn't expect the creature to rush right at them as they raised their spears almost too late. Sharp flint stone tips cracked against the equine's skin wbut still left some bloody scratches. This however seemed to have enraged the horse only more as it accelerated at Taiga. The young man tried hitting the creature's neck, but missed slightly only grazing it with a broken spear. Then the animal crashed into him and sent him flying.

"UGAH! Taiga coughed violently as he hit a tree and fell to the ground. It felt like someone just hit him with a sledgehammer in the chest. Meanwhile, the monster trashed around and more shouts could be heard from the hunters. One hunter's head was completely obliterated by a powerful kick while another was trampled to the ground until his face stomped on by a hooved foot.

Spears went flying or thursted against the creature only to do Little damage. However, both the monster and the hunters were in the disadvantage. Due to the forest, they couldn't throw theirs spears effectively and the horse-like being couldn't use its superior mobility to hunters noticed that and tried to tied the creature to the trees, however the men that held the ropes were thrown around like during a rodeo.

That was basically what this scene resembled. A rampaging stallion and many cowboys trying to catch it. A Stone Age Rodeo.

However, the creature was not stupid. It knew the fight was not one to be won under such circumstances. So it turned around and dashed for the shortest route outside of the forest. Once outside, it would be able to dodge and move freely.

That was if Tiari didn't just threw herself with a knife in her hand at the equine monster. Startled it tried shaking her off, slamming itself against a tree and in the process shattering Tiari's leg that was caught between the monster and the tree. This made the primitive human woman only clutch the creature tighter as she tried stabbing it. Her knife broke and still drew blood.

But the victory was short lived once the creature dashed out the forest and threw her off. Tiari screamed in pain, while all the other hunters ran after her to help killing this creature. It was as if a cruel joke was played to Taiga as he was looking through a hole in the foliage that was large enough to let him see everything. Tiari couldn't stand up. Desperately she tried to lift her upper body off the ground with her arms. As she did she faced Taiga, who was still laying on the ground, unable to move in all the shock that made his body numb.

*CRACK*

In that moment, the horse like creature dashed forward and bit down on the dark skinned woman's neck, making blood spray everywhere as her eyes had a last look of despair in them, before becoming lifeless. Her neck had been snapped under the jaws like it was nothing. All Taiga could do was stare in shock as the monster then fled with its freshly killed prey in its mouth.

Once again, Taiga felt powerless.

* * *

_Later_

The equine monster ran and ran across the land until the shouts of its prey had been silenced for a while. In a plain the horse like being finally dropped its now dead prey and began to feast upon it. Blood splashed out of the body as the skin was broken, bone shattered beneath the teeth of the monster as it wildly threw its head around to rip another large chunk of flesh from the dead woman.

"...!" Then it suddenly stopped eating as it quickly reared its head into the air and looked around. It had heard something, yet it saw Nothing but the grassland laying calm before it. Still the injured creature snorted and stomped on the ground as if to try and scare away whatever was close to it.

Then a large shadow flew right towards it. The equine being couldn't even cry out in panic as something sank its teeth into its throat.

From further away, something watched this ambush unmoving while hidden in a bush. Its eyes were unmoving as it looked as another predator fell to the fangs and claws of another.

"INTERESTING... NEED FURTHER INVESTIGATION..." They said.

* * *

_Later that evening_

The hunters returned to the village, but it was not a pleasant thing. Many of them had either died or had been injured. Also the amount of game hunted was unfortunately caught short due to the ambush at the waterhole where they had lost Wolf. All of the injured were immediately taken elsewhere to get their wounds treated, while the killed deer was taken apart. Still this hunt had been a disaster. Nothing was there to justify the loss of all those good hunters and companions that Taiga and his group had.

He went to his fellow students to tell them what happened About Ren. To say that they were shocked was probably putting it very lightly.

"ROAR!"

Unfortunately there was not enough time to mourn when suddenly a loud and familiar roar echoed across the land as the men of the tribe began to gather in the village. Taiga just as puzzled as the others accompanied them. The men went to the entrance as Taiga saw something. From far away it looked like a human being wearing the skull of a deer on its head. The rest of the body was not able to be seen from so far away.

It was then when the creature looked straight towards them and one could see bright red eyes looking through the skull's eyeholes. Red was the first color that humans would be able to see in the dark. Whether this was because of the fact that red was a signal color that usually meant danger or another reason was unknown.

However, what all these people now saw was that these unnaturally glowing eyes were the actual eyes of the being and that it was not human.

The creature then unleashed an ungodly howl into the night as the Sound alone sent chills down the spines of the men that had gathered to protect the village. Without further ado, it then charged right towards the wooden fence that was meant to protect the village with neck-breaking speed. While the creature was smaller, it felt like a mammoth was charging right towards them.

"Lift your spears!" One of the men snapped out of his daze as the others followed the command. All of them held their spears tightly in their Hand, while sweating in pure fear. Then in the next moment, the fence exploded into splinters as the monster crashed right through it as if there had been no obstacle at all. And now as it was closer to the shine of the fires lit in the village, the early men got a good look at this strange creature.

It was a tall being without any fur on it, but instead covered in leathery black skin. Its head was the skull of a deer with many sharp teeth in it, while red glowing eyes looked through the sockets at the gathered defenders with a menacing glance as it made their blood run cold. Next to ist taller physique, the limbs were long and thin, yet ended in long, sharp claws on hands and feet. A bony tail grew from the tail bone and the antlers looked much larger and sharper than those of an ordinary deer. Taiga didn't know what this creature was. It looked like it had jumped out of a nightmare. The whole appearance was strange and grotesque, demonic even.

He couldn't have known that he was standing before was a real wendigo, a monster from the myths of native americans. Wendigos were associated with hunger, cannibalism and harsh winters.  
And for this one the defenders and other inhabitants of this village of early men were only one thing:  
food.

Without even wasting a second the creature shok itself out of whatever stupor it had been from smashing through the fence and charged at the defenders who thrusted or threw their spears it. But instead of the flintstone tips biting into the flesh to draw blood, the early men watched as the creature simply swipped the spears out of the air like flies or knocked them out of the men's hands before slashing with its claws at the defenders, easily tearing through flesh and bones. Screams erupted from the injured like the blood as the People tried to retrieve their weapons, dodge the creature's attacks and putting some distance between them as they reorganized themselves.

It was pure chaos. The beast simply tore through the ranks of the hunters like a storm of claws and fangs, leaving only a trail of death behind it. Now it was in midst of the hunters, surrounded by all sides as they held up their spears, thrusting them towards it as if to scare it and show their defiance.

A futile effort.

The wendigo simply dropped on all fours and lowered its head as it enligned its head with a group of hunters.

"Get away quick!" Taiga yelled as he threw his spear, but too late. The wendigo simply rushed Forward like a speeding car, making the spear miss. And before the hunters could heed the call of the modern human, they were impaled by the wendigo's antlers. Simply whipping its head sideways made the dead or dying men or whatever body parts of them had been torn off fly off its horns. Panic spread amongst the other villagers as they tried to evacuate. The situation was hopeless after all. First they lost too many hunters today and now this creature took care of the rest of them as they had yet to actually hit it. Women and children were moving away to not get caught up in the attack, while the battle raged on.

"ROAR!"

This was when suddenly another roar echoed through the night and both hunters and beast looked at where it came from. From the hills above the village leapt another creature down and pounced another man, tearing him apart with razor sharp teeth and claws. Looking up with blood dripping from its jaws, the early men once more were left startled and shocked beyond words.

It had the body of a lion, the tail of a scorpion and the face of a man with rows of razor-sharp teeth like a shark. A creature known from Persian mythology and literally called man-eater in native language, the Manticore. A creature that had many different displays. Some were simply lions with a scorpion tail. Others had ram like horns. Others again added bat-like wings. Some texts would also claim that they would be able to shoot quills from their tails.

A few of the other hunters tried to wound it with their spears, but only to get swiped away by the claws or impaled on the scorpion tail, which lashed out violently. The manticore roared enraged at the prey that defended itself against it.

The men were now completely thrown into chaos. Now not just one but two man-eating monsters had stumbled into their village and caused death and destruction. The manticore made a hut collapse as it caught fire from within and the wendigo grabbed another hunter and crushed it in its hand, before throwing the corpse away like a broken toy. The fire spread and set other huts on fire, spreading smoke and ashes in the air.

At this point, it was clear even to the most determined one of the fighters. This was a lost battle and all that remained to do was to retreat.

It was then when both monsters roared at one another, Baring their fangs and claws at one another. The manticore growled and swiped the air before itself, while the wendigo refused to back down. Both predators circled around one another at this point. The humans quickly realized what was about to happen.

They suddenly found themselves caught in the middle of a battle of two powerful predators, that each was capable of easily overpowering them and devouring them. The manticore roared once more at the wendigo, which returned the gesture of intimidation in kind. Quickly the men fled what was going to become a battleground soon enough. Taiga spotted his friends as he quietly gestured to them to run up the hills around the village, before running off himself alongside the other men.

A moment of silenced followed. Both monsters seized one another up for a moment in midst this burning hell.

And then all hell broke loose with the feline pouncing on the demonic looking creature, sending both them tumbling to the ground. Roaring and screams tore through both predators' throats as they bit and clawed at one another determined to kill their competitor.

The humans cared little for that as they kept running to find the other survivors. They had nothing to gain from interfering in this fight. Maybe they could have stayed and taken care of the one that would win the fight as it might end up to be too exhausted and injured to keep fighting. However, if the fight was over with the victor being not that weakened, it would kill all of them. Also the village was already destroyed. Now it was all about leaving saving as many lives as they could.

Better being safe than sorry, the humans ran as fast as they could, only looking back once or twice as the monsters fought one another before disappearing into the night.

Meanwhile, the fight raged on within the burning remains of the village.

Black blood dripped from the wounds of the wendigo as it looked with a hateful burning gaze at the manticore, who was also bleeding. The feline had multiple bloody cuts across ist flank and dangerously close to the neck as well as on the belly and the face. The wendigo on the other hand had manly a wound on the thigh from the stinger and slash marks across the chest. The antlers had helped a lot to keep the feline on distance, but now it was getting harder to move. The scorpion tail of the manticore was still a venomous weapon after all.

The two monsters circled around one another, refusing to give up. Then the wendigo's leg suddenly gave in, making the creature yelp in surprise as it hit the ground. It was then when the manticore saw its chance and pounced the larger wendigo again. The other monster swiped its claws at the Lion like being and managed to cuts its face and eyes. Blinded and in incredible pain the manticore reared up on its hindlegs, before bringing its tail down only to barely miss the grounded monster. It tried blindly biting it, but its opponent used its arms to push and claw the other being away from it until they eventually slit the manticore's throat.

With a gurgling patethic cry the creature staggered backwards and wobbled around on its four legs. Slowly it became weaker and its life came to an end. Falling on the ground the man eater drew its last few breaths. Then it became silent. The victor of the match then managed to stand up again. Black blood still ran down its black skin, but it couldn't care any less.

The wendigo unleashed another unholy sounding howl into the night as if proclaiming its victory over the manticore for all the world to hear. Then it began to feast upon both the corpses of the humans and the manticore, not caring the slightest for the fire around it.

* * *

BATTLE BETWEEN COMPETING PREDATORS OVER...

RESULT... WENDIGO WON...

MANTICORE... INEFFICIENT HUNTER... WILL MOST LIKELY DIE OUT ON EURASIA...

NEED TO INVESTIGATE MANTICORE POPULATION IN AFRICA... DOUBTFUL THAT POPULATION WILL SURVIVE...

WEREHYENA POSSESS STRONG PHYSICAL TRAITS... STRONGER THAN HUMANS... WILL MOST LIKELY HUNT MANTICORES TO EXTINCTION...

ALSO COMPETITION WITH OTHER MONSTERS...

CALCULATING...

CHANCES OF SURVIVAL: LOW...

NEED FURTHER DATA INPUT...

* * *

Meanwhile far in the North, beyond the alps a large meadow was occupied with the most prominent creatures of the ice ages. The mammoths. Taller than a modern african elephant and covered in fur that varied in its coloration between reddish brown to even blonde, the massive herbivores lived usually without any predators and migrated through the land, devouring all the plant life they could.

This herd was relatively small as only 6 adult mammoths roamed the grasslands with 2 young trotting behind their mothers always under the gaze of an adult in the back to make sure they wouldn't run off. The leader of the herd was an old bull, slightly bigger than the others and with two long curved tusks, which had seen many battles with both predators and other males in competition for females to mate with.

Next to that the only real danger for mammoths were their young which lacked the massive size, weight and strength to simply withstand the attacks of predators like _Smilodon_ or _Ursus spaelus_. Like modern elephants a herd of these creatures would form a ring with the young in the middle and the older animals at the outside to fend off any predator. If that failed to scare them off, they could just charge at them and kill them by trampling them into the ground. Whether it was a wolf, saber-toothed tiger, cave lion or cave bear, when stepped upon by a mammoth you were dead.

Just like modern elephants these mammoths were not traversing through this land for the first time in their live, but moved on routes they had walked many times by now. Orienting themselves on Landmarks, they never lost their way.

That was when suddenly the adults made a loud noise of discomfort. Sniffing the air with their trunks, the elephantine creatures looked around as they smelled something strange. Something they didn't knew and yet that smell screamed danger. Roaring the older members of the group came together and put the young ones behind them as all of them looked in all directions to see where this smell came from.

And then it appeared. From far away another large creature prowled closer towards the large herbivores as it approached them from the mountains' direction. Its body was quadropedal and on par in size with the mammoths' own sizes. Clawed feet dug into the soil as the creature growled loudly, drool dripping from its jaws. White scales covered the reptile from head to toe. Muscular limbs and a long and thick tail were a testament of this creature's strength. On the front limbs sat something like small membranes like those of a bat, but they were very short and now Little more than just a pair of Long sharp claws to.

The reptile roared at the mammoths as it charged straight towards the large herbivores. The mammoths suddenly felt their confidence falter as the creature before them wasn't even trying to slow down. Instead it then jumped into the air and landed right in front of one of the mammoths.

There was a single moment of silence where neither side moved.

It was just a second or 2 long, but it felt for onlookers like an eternity.

Then the massive reptile lunged forward, biting down the mammoth's face and clawing into its sides. The mammal roared in pain and tried to shake the predator off, but instead it was pulled out of the ring. The other mammoths tried to push it away or impale it on the tusks, but with the reptile being right in the mammoth's face they couldn't really reach it. Before long, the predator hurled the mammoth to the ground and bit down the back of its neck. The large elephant-like animal tried to stand up, but it was in vain. With a single motion it then twisted the head around, snapping the mammoth's neck.

The rest of the herd then simply ran away while the massive predator tore through the prey it just hunted down. The sharp teeth and powerful jaws tore through the layers of skin and fur, before digging into the warm flesh and fat.

Not far from it stood a bush the creature had run over. Out of it emerged a figure drapped in a cloak. Said figure was no animal however, but a being made out of metal with only a simple humanoid shape and simple plates covering the internal systems while a single yellow lense functioned as an eye. Then it began speaking to itself.

"OBSERVING... DESCENDANT OF RELEASED WYVERNS... EFFICIENT...

ADAPTIONS TO OLD CLIMATE: INCREASED SIZE, POWERFUL FORELIMBS, WHITE COLORATION

ADDITION: COMPLETE LOSS OF FLIGHT CAPABILITY... UNEXPECTED RESULT...

CAN EASILY KILL LARGE HERIVORES...

MORE SUITED FOR NORTHERN REGIONS...

WILL NEED TO OBSERVE POPULATION IN WARMER CLIMATES...

INITITATING...

TRANSMITTING DATA TO MAIN PLATFORM...

TRANSMITTING...

...

...

TRANSMISSION SUCCESS.

CONTINUE OBSERVATION..."

A strong gust blew over the land, making the dragon look towards the snow covered mountains from where the chilling wind came.

"WINTER IS COMING FAST THIS YEAR... ORGANISMS WILL HAVE TO ADAPT AGAIN... RETURNING TO OBSERVATION..." The metallic being mused to itself. And so the machine drapped a hood over its head and left. Approaching the dragon any further was not a good idea. This platform would be unable to collect data for its maker's makers if it was destroyed.

* * *

Monster Profile

Name: Wendigo

Details: A demonic monster originating from the legends of native americans. The wendigo is a creature with a thin but powerful body, easily capable of overwhelming humans with its sheer strength alone. Its head is in modern day pop culture often seen as that of a deer or a deer's skull with large antlers. Its limbs are long and the claws on the hands are sharp, easily tearing through flesh. Their legs allow the creature to move fast and agile to close the distance between themselves and their prey.

It is a creature associated with the harsh winters in North America and cannibalism. According to legend, humans turn into wendigos when either participating in cannibalism or when being bitten by a wendigo. The later way of becoming a wendigo holds a strong resemblance to the european legends of vampires and werewolves.

Due to their origin, they are nomadic in nature with a preference to cold climates and their favorite food is human flesh. When there are no more humans to hunt in one area, they'll either attack other creatures including their own Kind or migrate to another area.

* * *

Monster Profile

Name: Naga

Details: A being appearing in hinduism as a half snake, half human being similiar to the mythical creatures gorgons and lamia of Ancient Greece. With the upper half of a human and the lower half of a snake, nagas are excellent ambush predators, which hold a preference to warmer climates. Other than that they can live anywhere from dry deserts over forests and meadows to bodies of water.

* * *

Monster Profile

Name: Lizardman

Details: Poikilotherm sentient reptilians. Resembling several other kinds of reptiles, causing many subspecies to emerge. Like the nagas they prefer warmer climates. Their scales provide them with natural armor and their claws and teeth can be used to kill prey. Due to the many varitations amongst the subspecies, their physical abilities differ from one another greatly (i.e. able to camouflage, being venomous, being omnivorous).

They seem to have developed a tribal culture like that of the early men already independently.

* * *

Monster Profile

Name: Manticore

Details: The Persian Man Eater. With many interpretations, the manticore was perhaps one of the races with more subspecies outside of races such as beastmen, lizardmen and mermen. With sharp claws and teeth they could tear through flesh and bone in no time from upclose while being able to shoot spines from their scorpion tails, which carry a paralyzing venom. Those manticores capable of flight are much more efficient than the earthbound variation, giving them a clearly more suited for more niches in the ecosystem. Because of this the manticores without wings have shown a slight decline over the years in comparison to their flying relatives.

Manticores seem to be unable to speak, but they seem to be at least semi-sentient beings as Observation between individuals have shown, though those beings are more solitary that only come together when mating.

* * *

Monster Profile

Name: Man-Eater Horse

Details: A carnivorous equine, which was usually used in YGGDRASIL by players instead of ordinary horses for their stronger attack strength. Though they do lack in speed and stamina. While not actually being limited to human flesh, they show a clear preference to hunting humans over other prey animals.

Their population has only decline in the last decade due to predation by other creatures including simple animals such as wolves.

* * *

Monster Profile

Name: "Polar Dragon"

Details: A quadropedal dragon with remnants of wings on its forelimbs. A result of evolution of the original wyverns that had been set free. Unlike their flying relatives in warmer regions, these new dragons can no longer fly as their bodies have become too big and heavy in order to combat the cold temperatures. Most of their time is spent in hibernation during winter, though more and more individuals seem to skip this hibernation in favor of hunting. Mostly solitary, these creatures do fight until death for both mates and territory.

It is unclear so far if they have still the ability to breathe fire or if they can still breathe anything at all.

* * *

Monster Profile

Name: Hyena Beastmen

Details: Similiar to a creature appearing in african folklore known as werehyenas. While very similiar to werewolves in regard of being anthropomorph predatory animals, these beastmen were not originally humans. They seem to have taken a liking into taming normal hyenas. Whether it is out of kinship or not is not known yet.

They do thrive quite well, despite competing with other beastmen and humans on a daily basis.

* * *

OC Profile

gilEBNLGLäjgrO/)§=

ERROR! FILE CORRUPTED...

REPAIR FILE? Y/N

Y

REPAIRING

...

...

FILE RESTORED

DESIGNATION: INVESTIGATOR

TASK: OBSERVATION OF BIOLOGICAL ACTIVITIES

LOADING PROTOCOLS...

...

INDIGENOUS POPULATION OF _HOMO SAPIENS_ DETECTED...

INEFFICIENT... CAN NOT SERVE... PRIMITIVE...

SOLUTION: REMOVAL OF ALL HUMAN SUBJECTS IN TESTING AREA...

...

ATTENTION!

ACTIONS CANNOT BE COMITTED...

VIOLATION AGAINST PROTOCOL DETECTED

VIOLATION: DIRECT INTERFERENCE IS PROHIBITED

SEARCHING FOR ALTERNATIVE SOLUTION...

...

ALTERNATIVE FOUND...

ALTERNATIVE: RELEASE OF PREDATORY MONSTERS FROM THE DUNGEON WITH PREFERENCE TO HUMAN FLESH

TIME SINCE RELEASE: 362 MONTHS

POPULATION OF HUMANS IN TESTING AREA HAS DECLINED BY MORE THAN 50%...

CONDITIONS... ACCEPTABLE...

RELEASE OF DEMI-HUMAN RACES

...

OBSERVING

GOAL: INVESTIGATION, DOCUMENTATION AND CLASSIFICATION OF BEHAVIOR AND EVOLUTION...

MOTIVE: CREATION OF SUFFICIENT WORKER RACE FOR SUPREME CREATORS

PROBLEM: CURRENT RACES INSUFFICIENT, LOW POPULATION...

METHOD: RELEASE OF DEMI-HUMANS INDEPENDENTLY FROM ONE ANOTHER FROM THE DUNGEON IN FAR AWAY REGIONS...

CONCEALING THE DUNGEON FROM OUTSIDE...

OBSERVATION OF FOLLOWING GENERATIONS...

NATURAL SELECTION OF MORE SUFFICIENT MEMBERS...

EXTINCTION OF FAILURES...

ENSLAVEMENT OF DIFFERENT RACES...

INTERBREEDING...

...

WARNING!

NEW GROUPS OF _HOMO SAPIENS_ MIGRATE FROM AFRICA

NEW GROUPS OF _HOMO NEANDERTHALENSIS_ MIGRATE FROM EUROPE

GOAL ENDANGERED...

PROCESSING...

_HOMO SAPIENS_ AND _HOMO NEANDERTHALENSIS_ POPULATIONS MUST BE REMOVED... ARE NOT ALLOWED TO INTERFERE WITH EXPERIMENT...

COUNTERMEASSURES MUST BE TAKEN

...

...

NEW OBJECTIVE: CLEANSING

DRONES MOVING OUT TO DESTROY INVASIVE LIFEFORMS...

...

ORDERS SENT...

DRONES MOBILIZED...

AWAITI-

...

WARNING!

ABERRANT HUMAN INDIVIDUALS DETECTED

BEHAVIOR SIMILIAR TO ENEMY CREATORS

...

MUST BE CLEANSED! ARE NOT ALLOWED TO SPREAD!

...

ORDERS TRANSMITTED TO EXTERNAL PLATFROMS

RETURNING TO OBSERVATION...

OBSERVING...

AWAITING RETURN OF SUPREME CREATORS...

...

DATA LOG END

* * *

**Another manga I just recently found and thought to myself "That's some good stuff right there. Why have I not thought about such a thing before?" That was a second before I remembered that I actually had such a thing planned for an actual story rather than a oneshot.**

**I mean, it would be an interesting plot idea. One that has been used for quite a few number of times, but still more interesting than certain other ideas and hopefully better executed than other stories that fall into the same main idea.**

**Sure, it would be a lot of work, but I'd have liked to see something like people raising an entire civilization from the hunter and gatherer state to the medieval or even further state.**

**So anyway, one thing I really struggled here with was the choice of race for the other individuals. I needed something that would somehow fit into the Pleistocene somehow and unfortunately the only available races for that would have been lion beastmen and birdmen as documentations of similiar looking beings from the Stone Age have actually been found in Europe. There is a cave painting in France where one can see a human with a bird head and in Germany archeologists found a statue of a humanoid being with a lion head. And since cave lions did exist during the ice ages it is not too farfetched, now is it?**

**However I didn't wish to make an immortal race like the birdmen as they are for reasons I don't quite understand myself in the Overlord canon heteromorphs as otherwise Perorocino wouldn't have been part of Ainz Ooal Gown. And I kinda used up the idea of a humanoid feline being with my interpretation of Beast King Mekongawa, who might as well have been a completely different race, but that was my interpretation of that.**

**So with me not wanting to make another heteromorph player or another feline as well as me not wanting to just copy and paste an OC everytime I write something down, my possibilities were rather limited. I decided to use other creatures that did exist in the Pleistocene to use them as a logical reference as humans would base mythical beings on beings that they actually come across. **

**However, even then a lot of These races would be limited as they would already have been used or fall into the same category like the saber-toothed tiger (felines), wolves (I did a kobold already and didn't want to make a werewolf due to them being heteromorphs), terrorbirds and more birds (I know terrorbirds didn't exist in Europe, but I just wanted to mention them as they are one of my favorite cenozoic animals). So that left wolly rhinos and mammoths as well as muscus oxes, giant sloths, tortoises, crocodilians, bears and _Megaloceros_. As you can see, those are not exactly the best conditions when you try to make monsters.**

**So I said to myself "Screw it!" and simply implanted multiple mythical creatures that shared traits with local fauna as well as creatures that would later appear in human civilizations many millennia later around the Mediterrean Sea, where the story of Taiga of Genesis is Apparently taking place when looking at the creatures that are mixed into the environment that Taiga and the rest found themselves into and the clash between humans and neanderthals. **

**I can't say for sure where precisely, but I'd guess somewhere close to the Arabian Peninsula, which is also where I think The Master of Ragnarök and Blesser of Einherjar might be taking place. However, one might also note that the sea level during the last glacial maximum was about 135 meters below that of today so it might as well be a place that today would be completely flooded after the sea level reached its current height after the glaciers melted down.**

**So anyway, instead of creating a specific character to take care of this place and cause lots of misery, I simply shipped over several species of monsters that pose a maybe even more dangerous threat to the survival of the human race as an intelligent former human being. After all, humans would have a certain hesitation before attacking others. Even a normal YGGDRASIL player of a completely different race would most likely not attack the primitive humans or neanderthals without provocation or the need to do so without any sort of abnormalties in their psyche.**

**On the other hand, most monsters would simply see the primitive hominins as another source of Food, that is quite easier to hunt down and to kill than probably most of the pleistocene megafauna such as giant sloths, rhinos, deer and mammoths and provides a decent amount of meat. **

**Also what I tried to show back there with the wendigo clashing with the manticore and killing it, is that the future for even these legendary creatures is still uncertain even when physically being superior to humans and most creatures. Next to competing with one another and mankind, some of them might not be able to adapt to the challenges ahead such as drastic climate changes that will occur frequently over the course of the Pleistocene. For example, those large polar dragons could easily go extinct during a interglacial period, while those that adapted to warmer climates just thrived until the next ice age comes around the corner.**

**Given that this is a fallen world, you can guess what happened to the human race, however whether the new dominant being to replace humanity would be some kind of demi-human race or perhaps a monster or maybe even a completely different sentient species that might has yet to evolve is not written in stone at this point. What is clear however is that human civilization on this version of Earth is doomed to be destroyed before it even left the hunter and gatherer state this time.**

**.**

**.**

**Also I do apologize for not putting enough speech and thoughts of Taiga and the early men into this story, but I really had difficulty with that so I just threw it out of the window as the setting was actually more interesting than the characters (in my own opinion of course).**

**.**

**.**

**.**

**So thanks for reading. I hope I did not bore you with that wall of text of me rambling here at the end. I can only recommend the manga Sousei no Taiga for you to check it out yourselves.**

**What are your thoughts on the story's topic? Would you like such a thing? And like always leave your personal opinions, suggestions and criticism in the reviews.**

**And with that I wish you a nice day. I'll see you next time :)**


	11. Chapter X: From the Depths

Chapter X: From the Depths (Terra Formars)

* * *

Everything was wrong.

The sky was wrong. The ground was wrong. The sea was wrong.

All was wrong. Nothing was right.

No matter where they went, it was still wrong.

No matter how hard they tried to flee from it, they couldn't escape it.

Absolutely nothing was as they remembered it to be.

Where were they? What direction where they facing? Where was up and where was down? They had lost all sense of orientation what seemed to have been an eternity ago.

Where were they hiding now? What were they up to? What Kind of trick were they going to use this time? From where were they going to come? What dirty trick would they use this time to kill them?

Kill...

Everything was trying to kill them. Absolutely nothing was crawling in this place that had not tried to kill them or at least to inflict pain and injuries upon their body. It had been like that ever since... Ever since when actually? They couldn't remember a time anymore when something was not hostile or attacked him. It was as if their mind had turned into a pitchblack bog which had completely engulfed them as they were unable to escape from it.

It didn't matter what was before. They had given up to swim back to the surface beyond this madness a long time ago. Nothing mattered at all.

All that mattered was that they had to quench they bloodthirst! Had to make them pay! Had to slaughter every single one of them until nothing of them remained, but a fading memory!

* * *

A warm sensation of sunrays hit their back as they kept prowling around the area. Well one couldn't exactly call it an area as they were constantly moving without ever staying in one place for even a short period of time. Not too long ago they had been attacked here, but like all others before them, those attackers failed as well and were killed.

This was how life was for them.

That was pretty much their definition of life at this point.

Move. Kill. Repeat.

No hunting. No attempting of killing. Just killing with 100% efficiency everything that dared to even come across them.

Too many attempts to hurt them had made them kill them on sight at every encounter. Even if they tried to rest they had been attacked too many times to truly relax and not sleep without at least one eye open to sopt their enemy and immediately rush towards them to kill them.

They didn't question it. They didn't the reason why they were attacked. They didn't question whether there was another way or not.  
All their mind could think about was to kill.

They had no home. No territory. No place they cold call a safe haven in truth. They just kept moving no matter what. Like an unstoppable stream in the ocean, they simply sweapt across any obstacle or altered their path, but they never stopped. Without any other goal. Without any other purpose... but to kill. An instinct that overtook everything else. All would die by their hands for trying to bring harm to them.

It was then when something else shook the world around them, making them stop in their tracks. Motionless they stayed in one place, but the world around them shook violently. Above, below and to their sides the world shook violently.

They felt no fear however. No panic or unease spread in their mind clouded by rage and bloodlust. Only one emotion kept its hold in them. Just the need to kill. And so they looked around themselves, looking for the cause of this unusual event, which they couldn't explain themselves.

And then there was hunger. Another driving force that kept them moving forward. They didn't need much. Even long periods of time without food were basically nothing for them. They could just endure it for so long.

A glowing light shot over the sky, making them gaze upwards as something had shot past them and left a trace of black smoke behind. The world shook even more violently as it passed over them and finally began to stop shaking as it vanished in the distance.

It didn't take much of brain capacity to tell that it had been the cause of those shocks.

Now with the target in sight, they began to move once more and followed the quickly dispersing trail as the instincts took over the body and guided it towards it.

No matter the distance.  
No matter the nature of whatever it was.  
No matter how hard it would fight back.

Something was about to die by their hands. That much was clear.

And so they were guided by their own bloodlust.

* * *

The day of just became even worse than it already was. Not that being stranded on Mars had been bad enough or that the chinese crew members of Annex I actually decided to betray the others for unknown reasons. No as if all of that had not been enough, now there was an literal army of terraformars standing between the fleeing members of the Annex I crew and the sea where they awaited rescue, determined to kill the humans that had set foot on their world out of pure spite towards human beings. Right now when the russian and chinese forces had fought and were weakened by the battle.

So many of the evolved cockroaches had gathered that they painted the sky black as the swarm of hundreds of thousands of them had gathered together to attack the crash site of the Annex I. And that dragonfly individual just killed Aaron and stole several body parts that had been lost during the battle, which then would be used to perform the M.O. operation on fellow terraformars.

"GRRRRRRROOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!" Then a loud glutteral roar was heard as the terraformar suddenly stopped. In fact, all of them seemed to hesitate for a moment as some of them actually. The leader's antenna twitched slightly as it turned its eyes to the horizon alongside many others. Unmoving circular black pupils that all were directed towards one thing.

That was when the members of the Annex I noticed something. The temperature suddenly dropped by several degrees. The air they exhaled now was visible as white steam and out of nowhere it seemed that a white wall of mist slowly crawled from the North towards the crash site. Immediately every Living being knew that something was wrong and a bad feeling crept up their backs.

And while Looking at the approaching wall of mist it felt for the Annex I members like they were watching how something slowly stalked forward. The killing intent in the air was that high that it felt like one would suffocate. All the present people knew immediately, that this mist had not been a natural occurence on the planet.

Fortunately for them it seemed that whatever it was had a bone to pick with the terraformars first as suddenly something left the mist, though the people only saw that something had apparently left the fog because a whole had opened from within. No one had seen what it was as it simply happened too fast. Then suddenly the same white mist spread across a large section of the terraformar swarm above the mist below. Another moment of silence spread across the land.

*Thud* *Crack* *Pling*

That was when the silence was broken by something hitting the ground and shattering upon impact. Turning around neither Sylvester Asimov nor any of their subordiantes could believe it. The fallen object was a terraformar or rather its frozen corpse that now laid in pieces on the ground. Ice coated the exoskeleton of the human-like insect. Its antennae and wings were broken and its entire body was frozen solid, inculding the insides.

*Crack* *Crack* *Crack* *Crack* *Crack* *Crack* *Crack* *Crack* *Crack* *Crack* *Crack* *Crack* *Crack* *Crack*

And so more and more frozen terraformar started to rain down from the White mist that suddenly had appeared, each dropping like stones and shattering like glass upon impacting onto the ground. While the roaches had evolved to survive even extreme temperatures without any injuries or negative consequences for themselves, this mist apparently had been cold enough to even freeze every drop of water within the terraformar's body despite their incredible biological adaptations.

Water was a very important substance for all lifeforms on Earth as it was also a large part of the bodies of organisms. When water freezes to ice, it gains a lot of volume. Because of that a living cell, that has its plasma freeze completely, would basically be torn apart from the inside out as the membrane would be unable to cope with that increase of volume.

That was the cause of the deaths all these terraformars. Also with their entire bodies freezing solid like that, the insects also had no chance to leave any sort of eggs behind as whatever genetic material they stored within their bodies was simply torn into shreds as well.

*Boom*

Suddenly something else crashed into the ground not far from the Annex I. This time the object caused dust to kick up, while both the Annex I members and the terraformars could only watch in silence as the dust settled to reveal something new to them. Something that made their blood run cold.

Within the new formed crater stood a figure on two legs, but it clearly was not human. Covered from head to two in ash gray metal armor, which covered even a long finned tail and a triangular fin on the back, stood a being with two long arms and an almost triangular head as the only thing visible of the being were sharp teeth behind the mouthguard of the helmet as it growled menacingly and panted heavily. With other words it looked as if someone had given a shark armor, arms and legs.

For a moment the creature stood there hunched over, but then it straightened itself and looked up at the swarm of terraformars. It didn't stop hissing and growling at them though.

**Cockroaches are among those species that didn't change in their appearance to a significant degree for millions of years. As such the family of cockroaches is actually over 300 million years old. A living fossil from the Carboniferous period, making them older than even the dinosaurs!**

**However, even older than the cockroaches is a group of vertebrate creatures that evolved more than 400 million years ago in the Ordovician. Just like the cockroach these creatures mostly didn't change in their appearance, despite having lived through all kinds of mass extinction events, climate changes, manmade pollution and competition with other more dangerous predators.**

**And still these creatures came out unchanged and hold in many regions of the recent Earth's seas the position of the apex predator.**

**The name of this group is Selachimorpha, more commonly known as the sharks.**

"ROAR!" Instead it roared once more at the swarm of insect above loudly and spread its arms as if challenging them with the fingers curled up like claws. The volume alone sent a shockwave of cold air across the ground, making both the chinese and russian wince a little as the cold bit into their skin. It was as if it was challenging them to attack.

The demon dragonfly terraformar hissed in hatred at the strange new arrival, but didn't descend down to attack. It could tell that this was not an easy enemy to defeat unlike the man who's neck it just snapped and killed. Instead, a couple of ordinary terraformars sat down or rather dropped some of their own young as they were armed with knifes. They did land gracefully onto the ground, but that didn't matter for the armorclad being as faster as one could see, the creature had shot forward, tackling one of the young ones down and then tore it apart with its bare hands.

The other young terraformars didn't mind it at all as their comerade was reduced to a pile of gore. Instead two of them rushed towards the Annex I members, while the other dashed towards the armored creature that had the torn out head and spine of the child terraformar in its hand. Immediately as the creature's gaze turned towards itself, the child terraformar ran in circles around the being. Then it suddenly vanished, confusing both the young and the adult terraformars that were watching from above.

*Crack* *Splatter*

That was before suddenly the armored being reappared, this time grabbing the child terraformars face so hard that it exploded in a shower of blood and gore as its hand crushed the front of the head like as if it was made out of paper, before throwing the dead body to the ground and stomping on it, making it explode like a balloon full with water followed by unleashing another roar at the swarm. One of the adult terraformar then rushed in response at the being. It tried to reach out to it as if to also crush it in its grasp. But not even a second later the outstretched arm of the terraformar was broken, twisted in an unbelievable angle and the body thrown to the ground, smashing its head into the ground.

And then it started kicking the insect into the ground.

**Sharks possess alongside their relatives the rays and chimaera, a special kind of sensic organ in the front of their heads. These ****Ampullae of Lorenzini** **are** **visible as small dots on the lower side of the head and are capable of registering the bioelectricity of other creatures which among other things is induced through the heartbeat of a fish in the water. This sensory ability makes it impossible for prey to actually hide from the shark or to pretend to be dead. Also they are probably also important for orientation by using the geomagnetic field of the planet.**

*Bam* *Bam* *Crack* *Crack* *Crack* *Crack* *Crack* *Crack* *Crack* *Crack* *Crack* *Crack* *Crack* *Crack* *Crack* *Splat* *Splat* *Splat* *Splat* *Splat* *Splat* *Splat* *Splat* *Splat* *Splat* *Splat* *Splat* *Splat* *Splat* *Splat* *Splat* *Splat* *Splat* *Splat* *Splat* *Splat* *Splat* *Splat* *Splat* *Splat* *Splat* *Splat* *Splat* *Splat* *Splat* *Splat*

Over and over again, the armored creature brought its foot down upon the insect as if it wanted to bury it in the soil as the first hits actually made the insect's Body sink deeper into the ground. After what felt for the onlookers like an eternity, but was just a few seconds, it finally stopped and lifted its foot up, revealing the destroyed corpse of the terraformar. The carapace had given way very early and thus only a pool of gore and vomit green blood remained. If it wasn't for the separated head with its eyes bulging out of their sockets and its mouth opened in a last soundless scream, one might not have been able to tell that it had been a terraformar to begin with.

*Crack* *Splatter*

Then it stomped onto that head as well, causing the ground to break under the force of the attack.

Now the members of the Annex I really had no idea what to do, but deep down in their subconsciouness something began to stir. The desire to flee. When it came to fighting situations the organism normally was put before a simple decision. Fight or flight. But in that moment there was no fight option. Instead there was only the oppressive feeling that this predator emitted as it was in the Moment too focused on the roaches.

And then all hell broke loose.

While the two remaining Young ones ganged up on and the dragonfly terraformar attacked the remaining Annex I members, all the other terraformars began their assault on their true objective, the ship. For a race of evolved cockroaches with Incredible intelligence they were still limited due to the lack of rescources. What they could make on their own were clubs made of rocks, but all tools made of glass and metal were all stolen from former missions sent to Mars.

Basically the massive ship right before them was a large treasure full with all sorts of stuff that they couldnt make on their own, but which would be very useful for them.

However, standing between these resources and themselves was still this creature like a Dragon guarding its treasure hoard. Though it Held no interest in the ship at all. It just wanted those insects dead.

Right in the moment the roaches began their lightning fast assault on the ship, so did the armored monster's when suddenly a wave of cold air was released from it. The mist washed over a large portion of the swarm and each living being hit simply froze to death with their bodies breaking apart almost instantly. The swarm was numerous, but it didn't stop the creature from plunging right into fight.

Jumping into the swarm before it, it crashed almost immediately into one of the roaches and tore it apart with its gauntlets and teeth, while starting to maul its way through the swarm. Some of the insects tried to restrain the arms, only to be thrown around like ragdolls. Others tried attacking the monstrous shark creature. However, something prevented them from even touching the armor as they tried to pry it from the monster's body. That realisation came too late when they found themselves either ripped in two or frozen solid.

If the swarm of cock roaches around it was a violent current of water, then this monster was a rock firmly lodged into the sediment bed and breaching the surface. No matter how fast they moved or how hard they tried, it simply divided the water, refusing to move even an inch. Though it was pushed back by hundreds of these creatures, it still kept killing them.

The terraformars even tried to just hit the creature really hard, using their speed to maximize the power of their attacks, but instead they only found their own limbs explode into gore before even touching the armor of it. It was beyond their understanding how or why this was happening, but in general a conclusion reached all of them very fast.

They couldn't defeat this Thing with their current resources. If terraformars had something like religion, then this creature before them that violently killed them without discrimination and devoured them would be the devil himself. That was when suddenly more terraformars started dropping like flies from the sky. Suddenly the movement of most of them ceased and they fell dead to the ground. Even those clinging onto the hull of the Annex I ship started falling down, tumbling over one another to the ground. Not a single one of them remained alive.

Reason for this was a single young member of the chinese squad Hong. Though being perhaps the youngest participant of the Annex I mission and the risky M.O. operation , she was far from harmless. No, in fact her ability was so powerful and lethal, that all her fellow squad members were forced to biohazard suits in order to protect themselves from it. That was because of her base, which was a bacteria, but not just any bacteria.

Bacillus anthracis, a pathogen of anthrax. But unlike the normal cases of anthrax, Hong's ability allowed her body to produce a lethal gas for other living creatures, which could kill within only few minutes. With other words, Hong was a living bioweapon, capable of wiping out even large numbers of enemies in a short period of time without even lifting a single finger after taking in the drug to activate her powers.

And yet, despite this destructive and deadly power that Hong possessed, she was now more on the edge than ever.

"I-It can't be…" Hong muttered to herself as she looked in horror as the armored creature simply stood amongst the corpses of the terraformars as if nothing happened, growling in mindless anger.

**Despite possessing only a primitive immune system, sharks possess a natural resistance towards Bacteria and viruses. Something that is necessary when living in all sorts of marine environments similiar to crocodiles that usually lived in bacteria infested waters. As such the poison released by Hong was for this creature little more than a minor inconvenience, which only existed to be overcome in order to hunt in a more hostile environment than usually.**

Hong's heart began to beat rapidly as fear clawed its way into her mind, while she found herself unable to breathe. Her toxins were strong enough to even kill the terraformars within seconds and yet this... thing, this hellspawn which wasn't even supposed to be on Mars where only moss and cockroaches should reside on, was apparently shrugging her poison off as if it wasn't even there. Frightened the young chinese teen would have taken a step back as she would instinctively move towards the hatch that would lead back inside the ship.

But instead she couldn't move at all. As if completely frozen in her place, Hong was unable to even lift her feet off the Ground to carry herself into safety. She couldn't breathe and her heart beat almost painfully as she watched in Horror as the creature's head slowly moved into her direction. And something Deep inside her told her that if she was found, it would be all over for her.

The guilt in her mind for betraying the others of the Mission was suddenly seeming as the minor Thing to worry About as the perspective of being torn apart by this thing was far more terrific than any of that.

However it seemed that Lady Luck graced Hong that day as the monster quickly whipped its head around to see the remaining terraformars retreat. For about a second it looked into their direction, before it roared loudly as it dashed with great speed towards the humanoid insects, determined to not let even a single one of them escape.

Once it was gone from her sight, Hong found herself almost greedily sucking in the air into her lungs as she fell on her Bottom, coughing violently. Somehow she managed to dodge death's scythe there. When she snapped out of it she quickly fled inside the ship.

* * *

Ichiro Hiruma looked through the report and the footage the survivors of the Annex I Mission had brought along with them. While the main objective of the mission had been accomplished and the antidote for the A.E. virus had been created, there was something concerning the Prime Minister.

Next to having terraformars on Earth, traitors among the United Nations and with the Antidote for the A.E. virus a guarantee that anyone would survive the previously risky M.O. operation, which might as well lead to an era of genetically modified soldiers, there was also this unidentified creature on Mars that blindly killed anything that moved. This being was not sent there by anyone and though Ichiro at first doubted this statement, he couldn't really say that he had anyone in particular in mind, who would genetically engineer a shark let alone any animal to this point and create a living bioweapon like this.

Not to mention that nothing the terraformars had thrown at this creature had shown any sort of effect. That was very unsettling. No one had been able to collect samples of it as it was the whole time encased in armor. It never lost a tooth like sharks usually do nor had it bled at all during the fights with countless terraformars. Was that thing even a living creature? And how did it get up there?

Those were questiones that Ichiro Hiruma asked himself.

Meanwhile on Mars, a certain armored creature walked across the land as the mutilated and frozen corpses of terraformars littered the ground like garbage. It was view as if coming straight from hell. The entire landscape was colored black and Brown from the dead terraformars and only massive blueish-white spires of ice breached through the mountains of corpses like bizarre monuments of destruction.

They didn't care how it looked like. Aesthetic was something they were not capable off. All they could do was to end the lives of those things.

From within one mound of corpses something moved underneath the bodies and soon enough freshly hatched terraformars managed to climb out of the pile of corpses.

*Rip* *Splatter*

They never got to enjoy the view of the blue sky as they tore them to shreds right away and quickly dug up the others that tried to hide from them, before ending their lives as well. Green blood flew in archs through the air and landed on the ground and corpses around them as even the newborn children were added to the piles of corpses. In their hand was the heart of the creature still within the body of the juvenile as it turned blueish in color and ice accumulated on the exoskeleton, before it shattered all together.

A sudden noise made the creature's head snap to the side as they looked up a hill and saw a group of terraformars looking down at them. They were different from the majority as they wore white cloth on their bodies and one of them had yellow spots on its forehead indicated its higher position within their hierachy. Plus except one, all of them were evolved terraformars with abilities taken from dead members of the previous Mars missions.

Beneath the helmet the eyes of the shark-like creature narrowed dangerously as they growled at the gathered Mars cockroaches. They didn't care the slightest for their standing in their society or the fact that all these terraformar were far more deadly than the ordinary ones it had killed. They just wanted them dead. Dead. Gone. Destroyed. Extinct. Wiped out until nothing would remain. They mind simply didn't allow anything else. Not since they were already in a frenzy.

**Sharks can survive months after a large meal without consuming any food in that time. However, it is a fact that when sharks do enter their feeding frenzy, they become so aggressive, that they even attack other sharks around them as usually large carcasses attract multiple individuals at once. When that happens a shark can end up injured and bleeding, which in turn can cause the other sharks to attack and devour their wounded kin… Which can also occur when during the mating process one of them is injured that they start bleeding.**

They didn't care for these creatures. There was absolutely no love they had left for These creatures that had attacked them. Even fate of those two humans which oddly enough smelled like marine creatures couldn't bother them any less than it already was as they would have killed them themselves if they had been unfortunate enough to be in their way (which fortunately for them had not been the case as they were killed by the evolved cockroaces instead).

All that did matter to them was that there were still enemies before them and that they needed to be killed.

Without a warning, the creature kicked the ground hard enough to crush all the corpses beneath their feet and the crack the ground below to propel their body Forward with full speed with a roar, flashing their razor-sharp teeth to their enemy. Even with the end of the Annex I mission, the fight for Mars was not over yet. Not until every last terraformar had drawn its last breath and they themselves or their enemies had become extinct.

* * *

Name: Megalo

Epithet: Martian Shark, Armored Land Shark, The One from the Depths, The One that Devours

Gender: Male

Race: Deep One

Biography: Megalo had been a high level player despite his heteromorphic race. He had been a tank type player, meaning he wore thick armor to block attacks even from players on the same level, while also being able to dish out lots of damage in exchange for only limited mobility and magical power. When transferred to Mars in the Terra Formars universe, Megalo had first been fully capable of normal thought and actions like a normal human being.

However, after weeks of roaming the once red planet and only finding terraformars, which kept attacking him without a given reason like mobs in a game, he activated his [Frenzy] mode in hopes to be able to end their lives faster without having to experience the gory kills, which he had been very uncomfortable with. Unfortunately, his mind was already beginning to erode away due to the stress of the situation, the isolation and most importantly his Cursed Knight gear. Therefore, upon using skills of his [Berserk] Job Class alongside his [Frenzy], his mind was fully enveloped by an uncontrollable bloodlust, causing him to be constantly in a state of madness and rage, which was only applified by his predatory nature. This was also because he himself was no cursed knight to begin with, but what he did possess was the armor, which he had picked up before the end of the game.

Unable to regain his senses, he now roams Mars as a cold blooded killing machine, trapped in a psychotic rage as he attacks and kills any living being that dares or is simply unfortunate enough to cross paths with him. Whether they are hostile or not.

As such, Megalo became the true apex predator on Mars.

* * *

**And there's another chapter. Right up I want to apologize for this is going to be the smallest chapter of the entire series. It's just not really that easy to write any fanfictions in the Terra Formars setting. The setting itself is a simple one, but there's just not really that much happening on the short notice. Also the aggressive and unreasonable adaptive fauna and constantly alternating between action on Mars and power hungry politicians on Earth isn't really doing the story a favor. **

**Not to mention that in some chapters almost nothing is happening to drive the plot forward in favor of flashbacks.**

**But in all honesty, how much more plot armor are they going to put on the human characters, more specifically Akira? The boy is already more versatile than a swiss army knife and has a genepool, that can only be artifical. Just... stop it. (Those who read the manga will know what I mean)**

**...What? I never said that mankind would be the only ones that would suffer. I said civilizations or nations. There was never a Limitation that only humans would get the +4 card of destruction. Mars is also a planet and the terraformars are its inhabitants. And where Akari, Michelle and Co. failed there is one thing that can bring extinction to the roaches. Something they simply lacked until now. A predator that preys on them and kills them faster than they can reproduce. **

**In this case, a predator even older than cockroaches, which I just pointed out with the bold sections for 2 reasons.**

**1) To match the trivia passages of the Terra Formars franchise, which one can also find in Killing Bites, Murenase and probably in any other manga where the authors point out the abilities of actually existing organisms to implant them in stories (or use them for plot armor purposes).**

**2) I only chose an older organism than cockroaches, because at the beginning of Terra Formars they always pointed out how versatile and adaptive these creatures are thanks to having survived more than 300 million years without any drastical morphological changes. So I'm just using the same card on that OC.**

**Technically I could also apply that sort of method on other alien races to destroy them with the simple downside that not many good sci fi franchises exist which actually put enough effort into their races to begin with. Or they put too much effort into them and one just doesn't want to go through all that trivia as it just makes it too complicated.**

**Also why is no one making OCs in the Overlord franchise who are more suited for aquatic biomes? It's just such a huge waste of potential when taking into consideration that the ocean is the biggest biome we have on our planet. I also noticed there are not really much anime or manga about pirate stories as One Piece pretty much is the monopole for that. So there isn't much one can use for that sort of setting either.**

**And before anyone puts it into the reviews, yes, I'm aware of what the Deep Ones do with humans, but I didn't put THAT into the story as that would have been very much out of place there. It has nothing to do with me not utilizing that race to its fullest potential.**

**Anyway, thanks for reading. I hope you at least it at least a little bit.**

**Well, see you next time and stay healthy.**


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